Commenters To Dropbox CEO: Houston, We Have a Problem

theodp (442580) writes "On Friday, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston sought to quell the uproar over the appointment of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the company's board of directors, promising in a blog post that Rice's appointment won't change its stance on privacy. More interesting than Houston's brief blog post on the method-behind-its-Condi-madness (which Dave Winer perhaps better explained a day earlier) is the firestorm in the ever-growing hundreds of comments that follow. So will Dropbox be swayed by the anti-Condi crowd ("If you do not eliminate Rice from your board you lose my business") or stand its ground, heartened by pro-Condi comments ("Good on ya, DB. You have my continued business and even greater admiration")? One imagines that Bush White House experience has left Condi pretty thick-skinned, and IPO riches are presumably on the horizon, but is falling on her "resignation sword" — a la Brendan Eich — out of the question for Condi?"

Comments

And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resums.

[Oligonicella]

Same intolerant crap.

Ghostery

[LookIntoTheFuture]

Ghostery blocked comments powered by Disqus.

Oh well.

"won't change its stance on privacy"

[Anonymous Coward]

If you trusted Dropbox before, your an idiot.

If you think that this is going to make Dropbox less private, instead of being just another expression of the revolving door, your an idiot.

If you are annoyed about the grammar in the previous two paragraphs, your an idiot.

Re:"won't change its stance on privacy"

[CrimsonAvenger]

If you are annoyed about the grammar in the previous two paragraphs, your an idiot.

If you can't spell "you're", you're an idiot. An illiterate idiot....

Re:"won't change its stance on privacy"

[Anonymous Coward]

And if you think being Secretary of State and being on the board of Dropbox has ANYTHING in common you're an idiot.

Re:"won't change its stance on privacy"

[Anonymous Coward]

if you make the mistake of calling somebody illiterate when they use poor grammar when by the letter of the definition, literacy just marks the ability to read and write, and doesn't speak to how well they do it, you're an idiot.

Re:"won't change its stance on privacy"

[gnoshi]

Trolling grammar nazis just makes you a different kind of idiot

Re:"won't change its stance on privacy"

[MyDirtIsRed]

Whoosh...

Re:"won't change its stance on privacy"

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed. That only shows you that the dolt you replied to has nothing else to say of value and that he's defeated himself.

Re:"won't change its stance on privacy"

[Anonymous Coward]

And what kind of idiot is that? Explain clearly and concisely why highlighting stupid behaviour makes someone an idiot, if your able.

The substance of my post - something grammar nazis are delightfully unable to absorb when they see a syntax error - remains: if you were concerned about privacy, you wouldn't have been using Dropbox in the first place. Rice's appointment changes a big fat nothing.

Re:"won't change its stance on privacy"

[Anonymous Coward]

"If you are annoyed about the GRAMMER in the previous two paragraphs, your an idiot."

FTFY.

Re:"won't change its stance on privacy"

[johnsie]

Thanks for proving Muphry's Law to be correct. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

Any necessary action...

[Anonymous Coward]

Any necessary action should be taken to ensure the safety of the company... after all, we wouldn't want the future of DropBox to wind up being a mushroom cloud now would we?

Recycling Personalities

[eyepeepackets]

Now George is a painter, Condi is on the board, Dick -- well, Dick is still a dick. So, are we supposed to forget or what? And forgive? Hard to do when we're still payin' the bills.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[ElBeano]

The bills from the Obama administration will dwarf the minor fraction of debt that was from the Iraq war.

Discretionary spending under Obama has grown at the slowest rate for any president since Eisenhower. Admittedly, the sequester has played a big role in this. The annual deficit Obama largely inherited from Bush has been cut in half. Go ahead and live your delusion. Some of us, including the parent poster HAVE moved on. Will you?

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Zontar The Mindless]

People move on with their lives...

Like Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, you mean?

Re:Recycling Personalities

[ganjadude]

those numbers are all well and good, but when I see the deficit has damn near doubled in 6 years, when obama called that kind of debt unamerican to be a problem, as did 2006 obama.

I guess I just look at things different than most here, as I hated bush and hate obama damn near equally, I find both of them to be detrimental to the american way of life. Instead of cheerleading for one asshole over the other turd sandwich, I prefer to look at them both on their own merits, and frankly obama has been the biggest divider in american history since the civil war

Re:Recycling Personalities

[sribe]

The bills from the Obama administration will dwarf the minor fraction of debt that was from the Iraq war.

The amount wasted on the war due to incompetence in carrying out the occupation would easily pay for the health care for all uninsured citizens for almost a decade.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[sribe]

...but when I see the deficit has damn near doubled in 6 years...

The deficit has been reduced by more than half in 6 years. The national debt has increased greatly, because of the huge deficit which Obama inherited from Bush. But seriously, why I am wasting my breath on a fucktard who doesn't know the difference.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[BonThomme]

and when taking the bridge of an underway battleship, your first question would be "What do you mean we can't stop right here?"

that said, you probably do "look at things different from most here", but your last independent clause indicates the place where you think entirely like the others.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[BonThomme]

well, they moved on with their deaths...

Re:Recycling Personalities

[fnj]

I understand very clearly the difference between accumulated debt and rate of growth of debt (which is what the deficit is).

At the same time, you should understand that you can't "inherit" a deficit. The idea is poppycock. The budget for each year stands fresh on its own. You can change a massive deficit to a surplus in a single year just by adjusting the numbers in your budget. Yes, interest on the debt (which IS inherited), and a piss poor economic climate (which is inherited to some extent) are burdens on the budget, but it within the power of the budgeters to counteract these. I don't claim it would be an easy choice to do it, or to live with, but it is in point of fact utterly trivial procedurally to do.

A final point I'll throw in just to make the whole discussion even more fun. No President has any control over the budget beyond:
1) Submitting one, which can be mutilated or just replaced by the legislature.
2) Signing off on whatever budget DOES get passed by the legislature (if there is one).
3) Using the bully pulpit, which is not trivial, but still it's just talk and persuasion.

In passing, I call attention to the point that those responsible for making a budget can subvert the whole process by just failing to execute their duty. Both the President and Congress have been guilty of that.

One could argue that a President can take unilateral action, like engaging the military in action, which necessarily leads to hemmorhage in the budget, so yes, that has to be mitigated. However, the legislature can still use the war powers act to limit the effect by limiting the time scale - IF, and it is a big IF, they are willing to stick their neck out.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[sribe]

sorry you are correct, I did mean debt, which again someone said was unamerican in the past. But yeah, im a fucktard because i mistyped something. You could have ended it after your second sentence and gotten the same point across without sounding like a smug asshole

I wasn't just the typo. It was the blame-shifting onto Obama of Bush's fiscal disaster. So I stick by my second sentence, because it applies to your post as a whole.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[cold fjord]

And you will assign zero blame to Saddam. This is why aggressors have such a free hand in the world. When Saddam invaded and annexed Kuwait: silence in the streets. When the US, UK, France, and other allies prepared for military action to remove Saddam's forces from Kuwait: streets full of people protesting war, aggression, and Western imperialism.

If you want health care, vote for it. It is nonsense to claim that money spent for something else would have gone there if nobody voted for it.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[sribe]

At the same time, you should understand that you can't "inherit" a deficit.

1) Every president does so his first year. In OP's claim that the debt doubled during Obama's first 6 years, he was implicitly including Bush's last budget. (Submitted to Congress by Bush 5 months before Obama was elected, 7 months before Obama took office.)

2) It's not possible, barring massive social and economic disruption, to strip the better part of $1 trillion from the deficit in a single year. Massive deficit reduction such as what Obama has accomplished takes time. (BTW, I agree that more needs to be done, and that too much of the reduction comes from the wobbly recovery with too little from spending cuts.)

Re:Recycling Personalities

[sribe]

And you will assign zero blame to Saddam.

WTF? Are you fucking blind? Read what I said more carefully this time: "...the amount wasted on the war due to incompetence in carrying out the occupation...".

I wasn't even arguing against having gone to war with Iraq. Just pointing out the fact that Rumsfeld's incompetence caused the cost of the whole Iraq mess to be at least twice what it should have been. (Not to mention US casualties probably being 10x what they should have been.)

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF? Are you fucking blind?

Not blind, blinded. And in this case, CF is also seeing things that aren't there. Par for the course.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

Bush's Deficit:

2005: $318B
2006: $248B
2007: $161B
2008: $458B
2009: $1.41B

So, we see above, absent the bailout in 2009, Bush's deficits were largely far short of $500B.

Obama's deficits:

2009: $1.41B
2010: $1.29B
2011: $1.30B
2012: $1.09B
2013: $680B
2014: $649B

There is no contest between the two. Yes, it's been reduced by half, but there were still 4 years well above Bush's nominal years.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

That's like blaming the new home owner for the high costs to rebuild a house after the previous owner handed over the keys while it was in flames.

Yeah, the costs of cleaning up the financial crisis are very, very high, and it sure made a dent in tax revenue too. But blaming the guy for the costs of cleaning up the mess from the previous administration is a bit ridiculous. Could it have been managed better? Maybe. But given that things like the financial bailouts were already being implemented in the previous administration and continued to be implemented in the next one, I doubt things would have played out much differently.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

The war cost runs around $100B a year. There are 40M uninsured, and an annual plan would run $5K. That's $200B/year. So you are wrong. Very wrong on your assertion.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[TubeSteak]

In passing, I call attention to the point that those responsible for making a budget can subvert the whole process by just failing to execute their duty. Both the President and Congress have been guilty of that.

This is not a point to be made in passing, it's the entire core of the problem.

Congress hasn't passed an Obama budget since he was sworn into office.
Everything since 2009 has been a continuing resolution based on Bush's last budget.
Even the sequester wasn't a proper budget, as it was just cutting 10% off the previous continuing resolution.
Which puts the lie to your statement that

At the same time, you should understand that you can't "inherit" a deficit. The idea is poppycock. The budget for each year stands fresh on its own.

The real irony of it all is that Republicans want to cut spending by $1 trillion/year.
Which happens to be the exact amount of Bush's not-so-temporary 10 year/10 trillion tax cut which is now in its 13th year.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[ganjadude]

I blame shifted nothing, go back to my posts over the past 10 years you will see just as much vitriol in my posts against bush as you do now against obama. The difference is simple, bush is gone, not in power anymore, theres nothing we can do about that. but we CAN do something about the person sitting in the office now.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[cold fjord]

The House has been passing budgets, the Senate under the leadership of Harry Reid (D-NV) has not.

The Bush tax cuts have been continued by the Obama administration because they were judged to be a sound method of stimulating the economy. The economy would be in better shape if the Obama administration was not roiling the waters with a rapidly increasing regulatory burden of which Obamacare is no small part. (Note how they keep pushing out compliance deadlines? Guess what would happen if they tried to enforce them?)

Re:Recycling Personalities

[cold fjord]

Just pointing out the fact that Rumsfeld's incompetence caused the cost of the whole Iraq mess to be at least twice what it should have been.

I'm pretty certain that Rumsfeld had nothing to do with Saddam's loyalists deciding to continue to fight on in a guerilla war, or for the internecine warfare to occur based on long simmering grievances, or for al Qaida to wage a campaign of terrorism to try to establish control.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[superwiz]

The deficit has grown at the fastest pace though. And it's not because of the economy. Tax receipts are the highest in history and the deficits are the highest in history. You can't blame it on economy or on "Bush tax cuts" because tax receipts are the highest in history.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[superwiz]

The deficit has been reduced by more than half in 6 years. The national debt has increased greatly, because of the huge deficit which Obama inherited from Bush.

No, it hasn't. Even the smallest of Obama's deficits is larger than the largest Bush deficit. And tax receipts are highest in history, so it's not because of people not paying enough taxes. He is just too incompetent to do anything right (including managing government's finances).

Re:Recycling Personalities

[superwiz]

No, actually the Iraq war was very economical in monetary terms. The entire cost of the war FOR ALL THE YEARS is less than the "stimulus" that Democrats stole under Obama in the 1st year of Obama administration.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[sribe]

I'm pretty certain that Rumsfeld had nothing to do with Saddam's loyalists deciding to continue to fight on in a guerilla war, or for the internecine warfare to occur based on long simmering grievances, or for al Qaida to wage a campaign of terrorism to try to establish control.

Rumsfeld overruled Powell (and the rest of the chiefs of staff) regarding the plan for the post-invasion occupation. He allowed for far few troops to control the country and far less effort toward rebuilding than they wanted. He made the decision to not only oust Saddam, but oust all Baathists from government, leaving almost no one in office. He made the decision to dismantle the police force without a clear plan to replace it. He is the goddamn arrogant fool who thought that he could just sweep aside the entire governing infrastructure in Iraq, sit back, and wait for a democratic republic to magically spring forth from the ashes.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[sribe]

I blame shifted nothing...

Sure you did. You blatantly blamed Obama for the part of the debt increase which was directly caused by Bush's last budget.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[sribe]

No, it hasn't. Even the smallest of Obama's deficits is larger than the largest Bush deficit.

That statement is partisan bullshit, pure and simple. The 2009 budget was Bush's budget, passed by Congress before Obama was elected. Obama assumed office in early 2009 and began work on implementing his policies, so the 2010 budget was the first one over which he had any control at all. (This is the way it works for all incoming presidents--they don't get to influence the budget before they are elected. Duh.)

Re:Recycling Personalities

[sribe]

No, actually the Iraq war was very economical in monetary terms. The entire cost of the war FOR ALL THE YEARS is less than the "stimulus" that Democrats stole under Obama in the 1st year of Obama administration.

Bullshit. The actual invasion and ousting of Saddam were economical. The ongoing >10-year slog to clean up after the botched initial occupation has been enormously expensive. And remember, "the stimulus in the 1st year of the Obama administration" was actually the stimulus that Bush got Congress to pass. Fucktard.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Zontar The Mindless]

Personal heroes of yours?

Entirely wrong side of the aisle, my good man.

By the way, I hope that you are doing some traveling while you're in Sweden. If you haven't you should really take in Malmö.

I've lived in Sweden for a number of years (not yet a citizen, but I'll be eligible soon), and visited Malmö many times. I adore Skåne and would move down there in a heartbeat if it weren't for various and sundry factors. The weather's better, things are a bit cheaper, and people down there are considerably more tolerant of my what-passes-for-Swedish than Stockholmers tend to be.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[phantomfive]

The annual deficit Obama largely inherited from Bush has been cut in half. Go ahead and live your delusion.

The irony is strong here. The only way you can make the claims you do is by statistical manipulation.

The specific statistical manipulation you fell prey to was in the last year of Bush's presidency, there was a one-time payment called TARP, which was mostly re-payed. Obama increased government spending the next year to the same levels as Bush did, and made them permanent.

So go ahead and live with your delusion, but you'll be smarter if you go out and actually look at the numbers.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Nyder]

People move on with their lives, maybe you should? The bills from the Obama administration will dwarf the minor fraction of debt that was from the Iraq war.

You're right. We should let everyone out of jail because they are no longer the person that did the bad stuff and have moved on with their life.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[iksrazal_br]

No, actually the Iraq war was very economical in monetary terms. The entire cost of the war FOR ALL THE YEARS is less than the "stimulus" that Democrats stole under Obama in the 1st year of Obama administration.

You seem happy that we borrowed money from China to make Iran stronger, but the 90% who supported the war at the time is smarter now.

The Iraq war is estimated to have already cost over $1 trillion, and will likely cost $3 trillion when the vets are taken care of over their lifetime.

The increase of debt so far under Obama is around 6.5 trillion. I expect it to drop as the economy improves, but that is admittedly speculation.

Bush increased the debt by about 5 trillion in his two terms.

Use whatever reasonable sources you like for these numbers.

The more important issue is that over 100K Iraqis died, with 4486 US soldiers dead and 32,223 wounded. And for what? We now have another dictator and Badgad is #1 on the most violent city list. There were no WMD so I fail to see what we really gained that was worth the costs in blood and treasure.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[ganjadude]

in 2009 id agree with you, but its 2014 now, and the numbers have not gone down, there has been trillion dollar deficit spending for years which Ill give you some of that was for the war (some of that was also for obamacare if we want to be honest)

Obama Deficits
FY 2015*: $564 billion
FY 2014*: $649 billion
FY 2013: $680 billion
FY 2012: $1,087 billion
FY 2011: $1,300 billion
FY 2010: $1,294 billion

Bush Deficits
FY 2009: $1,413 billion
FY 2008: $458 billion
FY 2007: $161 billion
FY 2006: $248 billion
FY 2005: $318 billion

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.html
So I will see your point that the spending is going down (thanks largely to the sequester) however the spending levels are still higher than bush (and for the record I was bitching about bush spending as well years ago)

I will aso note that spending did not drop down under 1 trillion until the republicans took control of the house. Long story short, there is plenty of blame to go around. but we can either waste our time blaming people who are no longer in a position to do anything or we can work on those we can

Re:Recycling Personalities

[superwiz]

They didn't have a budget. Obama assumed office in early 2009 and began work on implementing his policies

Are you really taking everyone to be an idiot? Does this idiotic, factually wrong, argument ever work on anyone? Here, idiot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A... This was a spending act over and above the budget. It was passed under Obama in his 2nd month in office. It was entirely financed through deficit. It was 831 billion dollars. That alone is twice the largest deficit that Bush had ever ran (400 billion dollars).

Re:Recycling Personalities

[artor3]

At the same time, you should understand that you can't "inherit" a deficit. The idea is poppycock. The budget for each year stands fresh on its own.

Absolute nonsense. How many wounded veterans are we paying for thanks to Bush? Shall Obama just throw them out on the streets? Even the healthy veterans will cost us a fortune for the next half-century or so. And how much money have we given away under Bush's tax cuts and Medicare Part D? Obama had to fight like hell for years to get rid of even a portion of the the tax cuts.

Obama's not a dictator. He can't just "change a massive deficit to a surplus in a single year just by adjusting the numbers in [the] budget." Blaming him for the Bush deficit is dishonest in the extreme.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[superwiz]

You seem happy that we borrowed money from China to make Iran stronger, but the 90% who supported the war at the time is smarter now.

Your ability to read my from internet comments is unsurprisingly bad. But I don't blame you for it. Mood is hard to read from text for everyone -- not just you. The war went badly, sure. Rumsfeld should have been fired much sooner. But it wasn't costly considering what it did. And it certainly was not a crime considering what it attempted and what it accomplished.

Bush increased the debt by about 5 trillion in his two terms.

4.3 trillion. And he had to fight a war and deal with post-dot-com crash of the economy. And that 4.3 trillion included the 700+ billion of the bank bail out that both Obama and Hillary voted for (as senators).

Re:Recycling Personalities

[superwiz]

The more important issue is that over 100K Iraqis died, with 4486 US soldiers dead and 32,223 wounded. And for what? We now have another dictator and Badgad is #1 on the most violent city list.

Different topic. A war gone badly is a mistake -- not a crime. But you simply don't know what the alternative would have been. Saddam was taking shots at US fighter planes all throughout the Clinton administration. You simply don't know that keeping him in power would not have proven more costly (in terms of lives) than what has happened. The was didn't turn a good situation into a bad one. It turned a bad situation into a different bad situation. But before calling it a mistake you'd have to show that the alternative would have been better.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[superwiz]

That's a lie. Plain a simple. The TARP was passed under Bush. The stimulus was passed in the 2nd month of the Obama administration. It was passed by Criminal Democrats in House and Senate and signed by the Criminal Democratic President. This theft was entirely guilt of the Criminal Democratic Party.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[LynnwoodRooster]

Those claims you make only hold up if you assign the 2009 budget to Bush. Who signed the FY 2009 budget?

Re:Recycling Personalities

[LynnwoodRooster]

What was the deficit of the last fiscal year budget that President Bush signed? What was the deficit of the first fiscal year budget under President Obama?

Re:Recycling Personalities

[LynnwoodRooster]

You got FY2009 wrong - as most of the anti-Bush/pro-Obama crowd do. FY2009 was signed into law by President Obama, not President Bush. Changes your calculus somewhat, don't you think?

Re:Recycling Personalities

[LynnwoodRooster]

FY2009 was signed into law by President Obama, not President Bush. FY 2009's record-breaking $1.4 TRILLION deficit was approved by President Obama. The last Bush deficit was $453 billion, about 65% of the current FY deficit.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[LynnwoodRooster]

Lies. Learn the truth. The House passed a budget (under Nancy Pelosi, speaker) that President Bush promised to veto. Harry Reid - the other half of Congress - held it until President Obama was inaugurated - and then President Obama signed the budget. FY2009, by any rational mind, is laid at the footstep of President Obama, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Harry Reid.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

He was right about one thing, pointless to argue with you.

If you inherit an economy that is undergoing a financial crisis then you have

a. Lower than normal tax receipts. What you going to do, raise tax rates to compensate? Historically when that's been tried, it's been bad.
b. Higher than normal expenditures do to unemployment, food stamps, welfare. You could cut these and reduce other spending. Historically when that's been tried, it's been bad.
c. You have an economy with liquidity problems, not enough credit to keep the economy functioning. You could reduce the supply of credit by having the central bank raise rates, and by cutting government borrowing. Historically when that's been tried, it's been bad.

The problem is we have a monetary system based on credit. Almost none of our cash is printed paper. It's all debt/credit both public and private. In a financial crisis like the one that started in 2006-2007, the value of private debt declines dramatically. When that happens the proper thing to do (based on historical experience) is for the government and central banks to compensate by borrowing so the Total Amount of Debt stays Constant you Fool. What do you want? The government to cut back to so that Money Supply Dries Up and we have a 1930's type depression?

Re:Recycling Personalities

[iksrazal_br]

4.3 trillion. And he had to fight a war and deal with post-dot-com crash of the economy. And that 4.3 trillion included the 700+ billion of the bank bail out that both Obama and Hillary voted for (as senators).

Um, the war is what we are talking about and it and most people now think it was a mistake. Bush owns that legacy. There would have been no Obama and Affordable health care act without it, so you can thank the Iraq war supporters for that. And it was Bush who signed the law. I'm a libertarian and I was against all that from day one.

And the stock market was lower when he left than when he came in - the only president in history to accomplish that. The crash at the end of his term was do to his "ownership society" and hostile actions to regulation, and that will be his legacy too.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[wavedeform]

The Bush tax cuts have been continued by the Obama administration because they were judged to be a sound method of stimulating the economy.

No, they haven't been so judged.

https://www.google.com/search?...

They were continued as part of a brokered budget deal. The Democratic house & senate didn't particularly like it, but it was the best compromise on the table at the time.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[AK Marc]

Long story short, there is plenty of blame to go around. but we can either waste our time blaming people who are no longer in a position to do anything or we can work on those we can

Blaming people in power now doesn't fix it either. Fixing it fixes it. Both parties are the problem, not any one of them. Reagan had record setting deficits, followed by Bush doing the same. Clinton had the first balanced budget in many years, then Jr set new records again, followed by Obama. Picking the current president for the only focus of complaint is silly. Especially when Clinton is dismissed for having a Republican House, and Obama currently has a Republican House.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[superwiz]

Um, the war is what we are talking about and it and most people now think it was a mistake. Bush owns that legacy. There would have been no Obama and Affordable health care act without it, so you can thank the Iraq war supporters for that. And it was Bush who signed the law. I'm a libertarian and I was against all that from day one.

I was talking about the war. The monetary cost of the war was a side issue brought by someone else and I simply responded to it. Anyone who thinks the war was a mistake doesn't get to brush it off as "everyone thinks it was a mistake". Just Bush gets to own that policy, you get to own your position. You have to have a damn good reason to justify status quo as it before the war. Oh, and the original comment to which I responded called it a war crime to even start that war (not a mistake -- a crime). I would love to see anyone try to defend that position.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

You are a moron.

The sequester shellgame of printing money will cost us more money than you can ever imagine. Out of control inflation, dead wages, loss of trade to start with.
We're bankrupting the future.
It's just delayed 2-10 years before the shit is going to hit the fan.

It will eventually. And it's going to be huge.

But fuck those future generations right. You got yours.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[iksrazal_br]

Different topic. A war gone badly is a mistake -- not a crime. But you simply don't know what the alternative would have been. Saddam was taking shots at US fighter planes all throughout the Clinton administration. You simply don't know that keeping him in power would not have proven more costly (in terms of lives) than what has happened. The was didn't turn a good situation into a bad one. It turned a bad situation into a different bad situation. But before calling it a mistake you'd have to show that the alternative would have been better.

You really think that with Saddam it was even remotely possible, under severe sanctions and no WMD, that he could have caused more deaths and cost more than the Iraq war started by W?

Instead of "containment" and no threat really besides the starving of kids in Iraq, we borrowed money from China to make Iran stronger. Do you like how that turned out?

One helluva mistake. But my mind was made up years ago. Its called war mongering by hook and crook, with the ends justifying the means. Scott Ritter may be a pedophile, but read what he said before the war. He was right on the money - there was no WMD and it was obvious to everyone who had been there. So W lied - there is no doubt about that to me.

This article by a USA general in 1935 makes me skeptical of your argument:

http://www.ratical.org/ratvill...

Re:Recycling Personalities

[ganjadude]

That is also a good point AK, simply blaming people does nothing whether they ar ein power or not if we dont do anything about it.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Waccoon]

You can change a massive deficit to a surplus in a single year just by adjusting the numbers in your budget.

Does that include multi-year corporate contracts?

Not all budgets can be turned on a dime, even with a change of management.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[AK Marc]

The only useful point in blaming the old administration is in pointing out that neither major party is doing anything good for the country.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

Still blaming bush, that's a tired old drum your beating. Why can't we just admit they are all a bunch of dip-shits on both sides of the aisle?

Re:Recycling Personalities

[arkhan_jg]

At the same time, you should understand that you can't "inherit" a deficit. The idea is poppycock.

Of course you can. If you inherit an economy in recession, your tax receipts are low, and your spending on entitlements - that spending which people are legally entitled to have - neither of which can be corrected by presidential or congressional fiat. Then you add a couple of wars to that, necessitating paying those troops and for their equipment etc, another substantial expense it will take time to correct even if you start on ending the war on day 1. You have numerous other spending that is politically untouchable, as the various lobbies will end the career of any politician that touches it, so congress won't touch it with a barge pole.

Only a relatively small portion of the budget is called 'discretionary spending' for a reason. And then you have a congress that is majority controlled by a party that wants to cut taxes (on the rich, mainly) at every opportunity no matter the situation, and is prepared to shut down the government entirely if it doesn't get its way.

So you can't legally cut much of the spending, and you're under constant pressure to cut taxes, not raise them. Your predecessor left you a huge recession, a massive red ink bank bailout, huge military and entitlement spending, and a completely intransigent congress. He's a president, not the magician he would have needed to be to pull out a balanced budget on day 1. There simply wasn't the legal leeway to massively cut spending or massively raise taxes to do so.

Don't just take my word for it - have a look at this graph of obama's time of spending vs bush for some additional background.

Then you factor in that relief and stimulus spending during a recession is considered the correct economic policy to reverse the recession and end it quicker. Once the recession is over, then you can implement austerity to reduce the deficit. Doing austerity too early just worsens the recession, and we end up back in the 1930s. Borrowing money early to get through a crisis is generally considered the right thing to do from prior experience. So a balanced budget on day 1 would have been a really bad idea anyway even if it had been possible.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

The bills from the Obama administration will dwarf the minor fraction of debt that was from the Iraq war.

Discretionary spending under Obama has grown at the slowest rate for any president since Eisenhower. Admittedly, the sequester has played a big role in this. The annual deficit Obama largely inherited from Bush has been cut in half. Go ahead and live your delusion. Some of us, including the parent poster HAVE moved on. Will you?

Why would you have moved on, considering we still have large portions of the budget funding both "discontinued" wars? The fact is, the *only* reason the deficit has ballooned in the last decade is because of those damn wars.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[eric_harris_76]

"Discretionary spending" is a misnomer. Except for the pay of certain few federal officials (federal judges, and perhaps a handful of others), which cannot be decreased during their time in office, it's all discretionary. It's in the Constitution; you can look it up.

When people speak of "non-discretionary" spending, they're referring to the spending done to keep promises of previous generations of politicians, spending which is normally done on auto-pilot. The default is to keep those promises, no matter how outmoded, unwise, unconstitutional or even mathematically impossible.

Everything else is "discretionary spending".

Speaking of all federal spending, not so-called "discretionary spending", is a more useful number, in terms of the future of the republic.

For flinging partisan mud at politicians, past and present, not so much.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

thank you

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

"an annual plan would run $5K"

You're doing the same thing everyone else does. What annual plan? For insurance? FUCK insurance. You bring the cost of medicine down to what it should be (about one eighth or less of what is charged - what the insurance companies pay, not what they charge), and just pay for people's health care as it comes up, and the original poster's estimate is VERY realistic. Now we have insurance companies owning hospitals. Ever hear the expression "The fox is guarding the hen house"? FUCK the insurance companies.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

I understand very clearly the difference between accumulated debt and rate of growth of debt (which is what the deficit is).

At the same time, you should understand that you can't "inherit" a deficit. The idea is poppycock. The budget for each year stands fresh on its own. You can change a massive deficit to a surplus in a single year just by adjusting the numbers in your budget. Yes, interest on the debt (which IS inherited), and a piss poor economic climate (which is inherited to some extent) are burdens on the budget, but it within the power of the budgeters to counteract these. I don't claim it would be an easy choice to do it, or to live with, but it is in point of fact utterly trivial procedurally to do.

A final point I'll throw in just to make the whole discussion even more fun. No President has any control over the budget beyond:
1) Submitting one, which can be mutilated or just replaced by the legislature.
2) Signing off on whatever budget DOES get passed by the legislature (if there is one).
3) Using the bully pulpit, which is not trivial, but still it's just talk and persuasion.

In passing, I call attention to the point that those responsible for making a budget can subvert the whole process by just failing to execute their duty. Both the President and Congress have been guilty of that.

One could argue that a President can take unilateral action, like engaging the military in action, which necessarily leads to hemmorhage in the budget, so yes, that has to be mitigated. However, the legislature can still use the war powers act to limit the effect by limiting the time scale - IF, and it is a big IF, they are willing to stick their neck out.

If I purchase a house with a mortgage, I do so, expecting to assume that mortgage. The mortgage size is what I inherit, and the costs to cover it. In my view, one inherits the deficit, which is the committed overspending of predecessor governments. So, cut the spending, which results in less outflow of cash, which results in the debt growing at a slower rate, and the deficit which is the amount of spending past the balanced budget point.

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

So I will see your point that the spending is going down (thanks largely to the sequester) however the spending levels are still higher than bush (and for the record I was bitching about bush spending as well years ago)

Do those numbers include the Afghan and Iraq wars, which Bush conveniently kept "off the books" in discretionary spending? Doesn't look like it to me...

Re:Recycling Personalities

[cold fjord]

Entirely wrong side of the aisle, my good man.

It's possible we're in the same store, and they are on the wrong side of the isle for you, but we're in different isles. (Not that I would necessarily claim that they are in your isle.)

In the early days the leader of the NSDAP was claimed to be comparable to that of the CPSU.

New York Times, November 28, 1925, p.4.
HITLERITE RIOT IN BERLIN
Beer Glasses Fly When Speaker Compares Hitler and Lenin

... Last night, Dr. Göbells tried the experiment in Berlin and only police intervention prevented a repetition of the Chemnitz affair.

On the speaker’s assertion that Lenin was the greatest man, second only to Hitler, and that the difference between communism and the Hitler faith was very slight, a faction war opened with whizzing beer glasses. ...

I think I've pointed you at this before. If you have 5-6 minutes to watch starting at 16:03... or maybe 14:15 if you are feeling generous with your time ... I think it is worthwhile.

If you're thinking of going for Swedish citizenship and you haven't started already, you might want to think about beginning training up for the Surströmming portion of the test ... unless they have repealed that. ;)

Re:Recycling Personalities

[Anonymous Coward]

Has the economy recovered from the fuckup that Bush and his fellow republicans caused yet?

Dave Winer is an Asshat

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it's now more important than ever for companies to communicate with the government at very high levels. However, for Dropbox (or anyone) to take on a person who, by his own admission, "played a central role in creating the surveillance state that we now find ourselves in" is beyond absurd.

Re:Dave Winer is an Asshat

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it's now more important than ever for companies to communicate with the government at very high levels.

Yeah, important for their shareholders since they love the $$ from all those juicy gov't contracts, tax breaks, favorable laws, and favors you get when you play ball by lying in bed with Satan and contributing user info to the surveillance state.

Unless the company is run by ethical people (I'll wait for you to stop laughing). In that case the "communication" with the high levels of gov't would be telling them to fuck off and get a warrant if they want to further communicate.

The protesters should brace themselves ...

[cold fjord]

A great move on the part of DropBox, they'll get plenty of free advertising. The protesters should brace themselves for the Streisand Effect.

And no, DropBox should not give in. Ankle biting crazy comments posted on-line aren't a scientifically valid sample that would be genuine proof of a problem in the general public. A couple of posts on Leftist bitter clinger message boards would easily generate this sort of thing. It's what they do.

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[Anonymous Coward]

You're just bitter because it wasn't Dick Cheney.

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[Anonymous Coward]

A great move on the part of DropBox, they'll get plenty of free advertising. The protesters should brace themselves for the Streisand Effect.

And no, DropBox should not give in. Ankle biting crazy comments posted on-line aren't a scientifically valid sample that would be genuine proof of a problem in the general public. A couple of posts on Leftist bitter clinger message boards would easily generate this sort of thing. It's what they do.

Oh, Dropbox will certainly get lots of advertisement, but of which kind? You might be a tiny bit off if you think that every potential Dropbox customer is supportive of the war in Iraq and the torture of prisoners, both of which Rice was instrumental in bringing about. Even if every single US citizen patriotically signs up for a Dropbox account, because of the Straisand effect you mention, you still have to keep in mind that most potential customers are non-Americans, and they just might have been tempted to look elsewhere. Google Drive, for instance, has absolutely no technical drawbacks compared to Dropbox.

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[Dan667]

the Streisand Effect had a negative effect and in this case I think rice is toxic to dropbox and will also have a negative effect to their business

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[iksrazal_br]

Ankle biting

More like "ankle grabbing" for the lovers of the NSA and water boarding. Going back as far as Napoleon, torture was already dismissed as ineffective, so its sad to me that some people are glad to regress a few centuries. And the "everybody does it" theme neglects that few others countries, ie none, have 30,000 employees and a $10 billion a year budget.

I'm switching to Google Drive since their theme of "do no evil" is still intact enough to avoid high publicity idiocy like politicising their business. Why the fuck do these companies think their political agenda is a part of their business plan? Part of this idiocy alone is a good reason to switch.

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[cold fjord]

The Streisand Effect has barely started yet. Many people that have never heard of DropBox to begin with will be hearing about it for the first time. We'll see how it turns out.

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[cold fjord]

Allow me to commend you on your decision to switch to another American company that does large amounts of business with the US government and which is growing more involved with robotics and autonomous navigation of interest to the US Defense Department. Did you know that there are rumors that Google has ties in with the CIA and NSA?

Have a great day!

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[neurophil12]

More like "ankle grabbing" for the lovers of the NSA and water boarding. Going back as far as Napoleon, torture was already dismissed as ineffective, so its sad to me that some people are glad to regress a few centuries. And the "everybody does it" theme neglects that few others countries, ie none, have 30,000 employees and a $10 billion a year budget.

To the contrary, torture is highly effective... at spreading fear and exerting dominance, and/or to produce false confessions. That's why it is used by a number of other countries.

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[iksrazal_br]

Allow me to commend you on your decision to switch to another American company that does large amounts of business with the US government and which is growing more involved with robotics and autonomous navigation of interest to the US Defense Department. Did you know that there are rumors that Google has ties in with the CIA and NSA?

Have a great day!

There is a difference, at least in appearance, from have your poster girl as some one who thinks water boarding is a nifty idea.

And Google is suing the NSA, rather than announcing that a former National Security Advisor who was part of the problem, is now controlling your data. So instead of fighting the governments worst practices, the actions of Dropbox suggest that the NSA raiding your data is just fine by them.

I am well aware that Google will hand over to the NSA whatever they have to per USA law. And the USA government is one of their biggest check writers. But I doubt they think handing over data in violation of the 4th amendment is a good business practice. And if you are not a USA citizen or an expat, you have no standing at all - not nice for the rest of the world.

Rather, the NSA is likely causing them to lose business overall. Google's lawsuits may be just for show, but like I said, appearances matter. Would you trust RSA at this point?

Have great day likewise!

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[cold fjord]

I very much doubt that Rice thought waterboarding was a nifty idea, and it wasn't her call in any event. Even if she did, the US has waterboarded probably tens of thousands of people, all of whom were US soldiers except for three (3) terrorists, the most recent of which was 11 years ago. If that is the basis for your decision I think you are on very shaky ground.

Google has been going after increasing amounts of government business, including intelligence agencies. Google has been sanctioned by several governments for privacy violations. If appearances matter then I think you should look twice.

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[iksrazal_br]

I very much doubt that Rice thought waterboarding was a nifty idea, and it wasn't her call in any event. Even if she did, the US has waterboarded probably tens of thousands of people, all of whom were US soldiers except for three (3) terrorists, the most recent of which was 11 years ago. If that is the basis for your decision I think you are on very shaky ground.

Google has been going after increasing amounts of government business, including intelligence agencies. Google has been sanctioned by several governments for privacy violations. If appearances matter then I think you should look twice.

Your knowledge, respectfully, on these matters are on shaky ground.

Google for "Rice approved CIA waterboarding" . In her memoir she states " ''I do not regret the decisions we made. I would never have engaged in - or encouraged the President to undertake - activities that I thought to be illegal.''

Alright then, I guess she was never bothered by mere moral questions, so I hesitate to give her my data.

Also, Human Rights Watch has higher numbers than 3. How many were tortured by Jordan, Egypt etc under extraordinary rendition may never be known.

Google is not perfect and the lesser of two evils is still evil. However, it is possible to opt out of most of the privacy invading data collection. There are legal challenges to them on privacy and that is a good thing. There are other options besides Google too if you are so inclined.

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[cold fjord]

The CIA does not fall under the control of either the Department of State or Secretary Rice, and the National Security Advisor is an advisor, not a policy maker.

If you think that the corporate board members of DropBox are personally manipulating your data you may misunderstand their business model and the role of corporate boards.

It isn't that she isn't bothered by "mere moral questions" so much as she made what she thinks were the best decisions she could and is comfortable with that. Your disagreement with her decisions doesn't mean that she is indifferent to the issues.

The Justice Department cleared waterboarding as it was performed as not constituting torture as it is legally defined even if it was coercive. If it is torture then you have to explain why the US still continues to waterboard thousands of its own troops. Even Attorney General Holder says that the waterboarded of American soldiers is not torture. Some people want it both ways.

Jordan, Egypt, and etc., are not the United States. They are responsible for their own actions.

DropBox has done nothing but add Rice to its board. Google is actively engaged in questionable activities.

I think what this boils down to is you want to punish DropBox for some things that Rice did 10 years ago that you disagree with. It has nothing to do with how DropBox does business, or what she will actually do on the board.

Would you think it unfair for DropBox to fire all employees that donate to progressive causes?

Will you be making it a practice in the future to scour the corporate boards and executives for people you disagree with as part of the buying decision for minor conveniences like DropBox?

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[Dan667]

more importantly, alienating current Customers that will abandon the service.

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[iksrazal_br]

I think what this boils down to is you want to punish DropBox for some things that Rice did 10 years ago that you disagree with.

People are judged on their credit reports and criminal history, why should using her past history in government to predict future behavior be any different? In this case that means questionable behavior on private data, as she has shown in the past. if its legal then anything goes and the ends justifies the means. And yes, I don't want to associate with people like that.

She is a very high profile lightning rod - unlike most board of directors - and hiring her shows very poor judgement, rightly or wrongly, on Dropbox's part. I expect they will go the way of MySpace. Therefore I'd be making a poor choice imho on betting on their future.

Have a nice evening!

Re:The protesters should brace themselves ...

[HangingChad]

I think what this boils down to is you want to punish DropBox for some things that Rice did 10 years ago that you disagree with.

Rice was part of criminal administration. We aren't talking about philosophical differences, they were crimes. Rice may not have been robbing the bank but she was still part of the gang.

Any company putting Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld or Rice on their board is going to lose my business.

Maybe you missed it but she was also the National Security Advisor at the helm when the US was attacked on 9/11. If that represents the clarity and competence she brings to her job on the board, this is not a positive development for Dropbox.

Again Timothy with the bullshit "stories"

[phayes]

News for nerds, stuff that matters... RIP.

Now it's whipping up mobs and abandoning it's historic readership by forcing beta on us. I've already removed /. from my rotation of news sites on my iPad due to beta being forced upon me there. Looks like I'll need to abandon /. on weekends when Timothy is active.

Re:Again Timothy with the bullshit "stories"

[Flentil]

You're really stretching to say this isn't news for nerds or stuff that matters, because it's clearly both.

Re:Again Timothy with the bullshit "stories"

[phayes]

Nerd != left wing.
Ex secretary of state != Matters.

Now if you're a leftist with unrealised dreams of punishing GWB, you might persuade yourself otherwise.

Re:Again Timothy with the bullshit "stories"

[MightyMartian]

Well thank you for making this special trip to /. to tell us all about how you don't visit /. anymore.

Re:Again Timothy with the bullshit "stories"

[phayes]

Not on the ipad at present, so happy to oblige. Now, because you appear to like it so much, why don't you tell us all how great /. beta is?

Re:Again Timothy with the bullshit "stories"

[MightyMartian]

I don't know. I don't use it, and when it appears I go to classic view.

Re:Again Timothy with the bullshit "stories"

[Anonymous Coward]

and if it gets too bad there is always pipedot.org and soylentnews.org to fall back on.

Re:Again Timothy with the bullshit "stories"

[phayes]

Try using an ipad. You'll find that Beta is being forced upon all ipad users. I've moved to the iPad for most of my web browsing but the /. beta badness means that I don't read /. on it any more. How are you going to react when Beta is forced upon everyone? Will you still be making snide comments about the people that beta has been forced upon? Will you abandon /. like I have on the ipad? Will you explain why you are leaving /. and then abandon it as many are doing?

Or will you appreciate the top notch work that Timothy is doing bringing /. down to a level worthy of digg?

Re:Again Timothy with the bullshit "stories"

[Flentil]

It just goers over your head. The nerd part is it's about dropbox, something used almost exclusively by computer nerds. The stuff that matters part is about privacy of your data, which actually matters to a lot of computer nerds. You're so wrapped up in political BS your perception is skewed and you can't see things clearly.

Re:Again Timothy with the bullshit "stories"

[phayes]

It only "goers" over my head if you're a patronizing dweeb. Dropbox's user base is completely mainstream & not just concentrated on basement libertarian/anarchist dwellers. Dropbox is not git you self deluding twit.

It is not I that is wrapped up in politics, it is the fringe of "I'm not anonymous but I wish I had the balls to be one" activists such as yourself that views life through these distorting glasses. Do I know what corporate boards Condi Rice or to pull someone off the opposite side of the spectrum, George Stephanopoulos is on? No. It's not news for nerds & it doesn't matter.

Does it matter to you? Visibly, yes. but other than for a fringe like Timothy it does NOT interest the rest of us who are nerds but are not left wing fringe activists.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ShanghaiBill]

Same intolerant crap.

There are some things that shouldn't be tolerated. War mongering is one of them. Thousands of American families lost a son, brother, or husband in a pointless counter-productive war because of this woman's lies and incompetence. The number of Iraqi families affected is a hundred times higher.

Dropbox has the right to have her on their board. I have the right to speak my mind, and take my business elsewhere.

Ah, 9/11 Condi

[Anonymous Coward]

If she could read memos wouldn't the twin towers have lasted a little longer? Well, if Dropbox needs that kind of help can't they just get a 1st grader?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ganjadude]

Sounds like the same thing they did to the mozilla CEO. When will these loser knock this shit off? I dont like the woman either but there are other reasons to fault dropbox without bringing her into it

Or perhaps we should take a page out of their playbook? why are they woman hating??? and shes black??? RACISTS!!!! You know thats what would be happening if the politics were the other way around

The real question

[radiumsoup]

The real question is, "what does she bring to the table" as a member of the Board? Does her tenure as a faculty member in the Stanford School of Business matter? What about her time as the director of the Stanford Global Center for Business and the Economy?

Re:The real question

[Lawrence_Bird]

shocking.. you mean she is not an NSA plant? I thought for sure that Rice was still on Obama's payroll alone with Cheney.

Re:The real question

[Simulant]

Because all that matters is the Dropbox stock price?

Some of us will never forgive her and so some of us will cease using Dropbox.
This is legit.

Re:The real question

[Anonymous Coward]

And what did Al Gore bring to Apple? What could he have possibly contributed to bring $100M to his bank account?

Re:The real question

[SpankiMonki]

The real question is, "what does she bring to the table" as a member of the Board? Does her tenure as a faculty member in the Stanford School of Business matter? What about her time as the director of the Stanford Global Center for Business and the Economy?

Ms. Rice is also a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a professor of Political Science, and the Faculty Director at the SGCBE.

Outside of Stanford, Rice is the founding partner of RiceHadleyGates. She also serves on the boards of C3 (energy software), Makena Capital, Commonwealth Club, Aspen Institute, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Rice is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Ms. Rice is also an author, a contributor to CBS, and makes frequent appearances on the lecture circuit.

I have a lot of respect for Ms. Rice, but when you look at all the organizations and activities she's involved with, I really *do* wonder what value she would bring to the board of Dropbox. Rice seems to be spread pretty thin already.

I suspect Dropbox put her on their board for visibility/star power as much as anything.

Re:The real question

[dbIII]

I really *do* wonder what value she would bring to the board of Dropbox

They have put a leading member of a political party on their board so that's the answer. Your mistake is thinking US politics is in some way special and you need to look at this as if the same thing was done in a corrupt banana republic.

Re:The real question

[SpankiMonki]

Your mistake is thinking US politics is in some way special and you need to look at this as if the same thing was done in a corrupt banana republic.

LOL. Based on what I wrote, you must have used some pretty tortured reasoning to reach that conclusion. In any case, I can't see how using the politics of a third world country as an analogue for US politics would be useful except under the most extreme circumstances. But to each his own, I guess.

Re:The real question

[Anonymous Coward]

What does "voting" change in the US? Both parties have a right wing authoritarian philosophy.

Re:The real question

[Anonymous Coward]

Politically speaking, the US *is* a third-world country, hadn't you realised that yet?

Re:The real question

[Anonymous Coward]

Her qualifications are irrelevant. I, and I doubt I'm alone on this, would not do business with a company whose board is made up of people who are known to be morally bankrupt. On the other hand I'd never willingly trust my data to third-parties so they're not losing a customer here.

Re:The real question

[jsepeta]

Apparently she wasn't very good at her job in Stanford from what I've read. Another case of "we appointed a black woman" because of race and gender and got poor results because hiring quotas are a stupid idea.

Re:The real question

[dbIII]

analogue for US politics would be useful except under the most extreme circumstances

Take a look at some of the more extreme examples of lobbying and you'll see it is a very apt comparison. Unfortunately those "extremes circumstances" happen a lot more often than they should. Putting a prominent Republican or Democrat on a company board is often just a way to "pay for access", while promising a later position when the person is still in power is naked unquestionable bribery.

Re:The real question

[Anonymous Coward]

So, no accomplishments money can't buy? She sounds qualified for an IPO/startup with nothing innovative that will help be a last hurrah for the economy. I believe she did well riding the silly rollercoaster that was the Bush administration and she will do well riding the silly rollercoaster that is Dropbox.

Re:The real question

[cold fjord]

Apparently she was such a "failure" at Stanford that Pennsylvania State University tried to recruit her to be their President.

Re:The real question

[Virtucon]

Manbearpig?

Re:The real question

[Anonymous Coward]

As a former academic with service from the University of California to Harvard I have watched Connie collect the list of "achievements" listed above and known well many of the people she was working with. I am at a total loss as to "what does she bring to the table?" I would be seriously worried about the judgement of anyone who thinks that Connie has "star power."

I will not use them anymore

[assertation]

I used them once or twice for non-private files. Glad I know this now. I don't plan to use dropbox anymore.

What do these people actually do...

[Anonymous Coward]

...on boards?

I don't see how being Secretary of State even relates to running an IT business.

Re:What do these people actually do...

[ShanghaiBill]

I don't see how being Secretary of State even relates to running an IT business.

Her connections can help them influence government regulation, and win contracts.

Drop Dropbox

[grub]

Try SpiderOak. Free 2 GB, zero-knowledge, secure. Works on a load of OSs and devices.

I'm a completely satisfied customer.

Re:Drop Dropbox

[causality]

Try SpiderOak. Free 2 GB, zero-knowledge, secure. Works on a load of OSs and devices. I'm a completely satisfied customer.

Or ... get a free dynamic DNS hostname (there are still plenty available) and take a few minutes to learn about SSH/SFTP (and SSHGuard if you are using passwords) and set up your own personal file server. It doesn't have to allow shell access.

Now the companies can do whatever they want because you did the little bit of learning it took not to care.

Re:Drop Dropbox

[grub]

I have my own domains and do this with tunnelled rsync to a NAS4Free box, though for long term storage I like SpiderOak (and TarSnap). SpiderOak keeps historical versions and dedupes the data.

Re:Drop Dropbox

[Anonymous Coward]

Or ... get a free dynamic DNS hostname (there are still plenty available) and take a few minutes to learn about SSH/SFTP (and SSHGuard if you are using passwords) and set up your own personal file server. It doesn't have to allow shell access.

Now the companies can do whatever they want because you did the little bit of learning it took not to care.

Exactly!
Private clouds are the only option if you care about your data.

Unfortunately, at the moment there seems to me a complete lack of usable cloud storage software, at least on the OSS side.
My personal experience with glusterFS (http://www.gluster.org/) was just terrible. Ceph (http://ceph.com/) also never really worked for me.
Today I've started testing SX (http://www.skylable.com/download/), mostly out of curousity as it's just a beta, but at least the deployment was pretty straight forward.

Anybody who has some experiences to share about RiakCS (http://basho.com/riak-cloud-storage/) ?

Re:Drop Dropbox

[Kardos]

Perhaps once the client is open source then the "Zero Knowledge" will begin to apply

Re:Drop Dropbox

[phantomfive]

FWIW Sonic will give you a static IP for free.

Re:Drop Dropbox

[noblebeast]

A personal file server doesn't offer anything in the way of backup. It's also impractical for someone who doesn't have a system that runs 24/7.

Re:Drop Dropbox

[Anonymous Coward]

"dedupes"... "zero-knowldege"

Does not compute.

Re:Drop Dropbox

[grub]

Dedupes client side.

Re:Drop Dropbox

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you let me know if two things work well with spideroak? This is what I use Dropbox for:
1. Camera uploads from Android and iOS - most important to me, since my wife uses it too
2. Syncing of keepass database, and access to that database from desktop and android.
These work really well for me on db, and I'd need to duplicate that functionality in anything I moved to.

Re:Drop Dropbox

[causality]

A personal file server doesn't offer anything in the way of backup.

That depends on where it's located.

If you took it upon yourself to assume "right next to the machine being backed up" or "running on the same machine to be backed up" then don't ascribe to me your own assumption. It was no accident or omission that I said no such things.

It's also impractical for someone who doesn't have a system that runs 24/7.

Right, just like a pilot's license is useless to someone with no access to an aircraft. Personally I deal with that by running the file server 24/7. When you enable various power management options and have a clue about SSH and your favorite shell, it's really not a problem. If that doesn't describe you, find another solution. Simple and much more productive than complaining that there is no Final Ultimate Answer that is 100% suitable for all people at all times.

It is an easy call for so many of us.

[sharkette66]

We don't want anything to do with a corporation that has Condi on the board. We determine what we want our worlds to be like... and we don't want Condi Rice in our world. At all.

I want everything she touches to be radioactive.

She earned it.

Re: It is an easy call for so many of us.

[cjjjer]

Well if you don't want her in this world and I doubt that she is going to leave; maybe you and your cronies can leave? I mean you are soooooo.... strict in your stance and all Yeah I thought so...

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's an easy call for hypocritical so-called "tolerant" people.

Re: It is an easy call for so many of us.

[sharkette66]

Well, no. Me and my cronies aren't going to leave, and we will continue to oppose the involvement of those with blood on their hands. Condi doesn't bring anything but the stink of torture to the table. You're sooooo welcome to her.

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[lonOtter]

There's nothing wrong with intolerance at all, as long as it's directed at an actual problem.

Re: It is an easy call for so many of us.

[ganjadude]

so you oppose obama as well right? He has just as much blood on his hands at this point, or do drones not count?

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[Anonymous Coward]

Other than the fact that it feeds the cycle of intolerance and as long as you continue to be intolerant of people you don't like, you feed the same in them making it worse and worse? Surely you meant that was still a problem with intolerance, right? The whole "turn the other cheek" thing in the bible. If you retaliate in kind, you feed the problem.

Or did you never stop and think about that?

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[Anonymous Coward]

Her position would have very real effects on a company that is supposed to pride itself on its user privacy stance. If you actually think that taking her on board is going to improve or maintain that image, then you are a fool. Her history proves otherwise. If she at least benefitted Dropbox in some way, then maybe she could be seen as an asset instead of a liability.

Just for your information, people not wanting to do business with a company that has suddenly taken upon itself something that subverts their core goals isn't called "intolerance."

Re: It is an easy call for so many of us.

[Anonymous Coward]

Are drones torturing people? No? Then they're completely different.

Killing and torture are not the same, by any measure. The comment wasn't that she had the stink of war on her hands, it was specifically torture.

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody is talking about retaliating in kind. Retaliating in kind would be kidnapping her, taking her to a black site, and torturing her.

You're right, that would feed the problem, which is why nobody is recommending it.

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[Anonymous Coward]

So you hate her because she's black?

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[Anonymous Coward]

Other than the fact that it feeds the cycle of intolerance and as long as you continue to be intolerant of people you don't like

I'm intolerant of murder, rape, and a number of other obvious things that you're most likely also intolerant of. It does not breed a "cycle" of intolerance.

Ignorance and warmongers are things I'm also intolerant of.

Re: It is an easy call for so many of us.

[ganjadude]

gitmo is still open, so we dont know if he is or is not torturing people....

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[cold fjord]

We don't want anything to do with a corporation that has Condi on the board. We determine what we want our worlds to be like... and we don't want Condi Rice in our world. At all.

I take it then what you want is a world of Saddams, Slobodan Miloevis, and Kim Il Sungs?

I want everything she touches to be radioactive.

Probably won't happen. Saddam didn't actually get the bomb, try though he did. On the other hand, Iran is still trying.

She earned it.

You should probably hope you don't get the world your policies would lead to.

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[superwiz]

who is this "we"? You and the other leftists in your remedial reading class? Leftist dumb ass... oh, but I repeat myself.. don't worry it's for your benefit. You know... so that an idiot like you might have a chance at understanding.

Re: It is an easy call for so many of us.

[lonOtter]

Killing and torture are not the same, by any measure.

They might not be the same, but they're both evil, or at least by my standards. Do yours differ?

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[lonOtter]

Has it ever occurred to you that just because you hate someone on one "side," that doesn't mean you're part of the Other Side? If I insult democrats, that doesn't mean I like republicans, and vice versa. I just dislike warmongers and authoritarian assholes who don't care about people's fundamental liberties, period. That's why I don't like Bush, Obama, Romney, Clinton, etc. (too damn many to list, but it ends up being almost every politician).

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[superwiz]

Has it ever occurred to you that just because you hate someone on one "side," that doesn't mean you're part of the Other Side?

Hate? I don't hate anyone. I hate what some people do. But hating strangers? Not my thing. And people who are leftist do often turn around and become decent human beings. I was a leftist myself when I was far less experience, less educated and more reactionary. Now that my faculties are more developed, I can discern rationally who's who. But that doesn't mean that certain postures that people take don't deserve denigration and derision. When the insane have taken the asylum, it's not a very good time to try to analyze them. First, they need to be stripped of power.

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[lonOtter]

Hate? I don't hate anyone.

I was not talking about you, specifically. And "hate" could also refer to criticizing people and generally disagreeing with them.

Now that my faculties are more developed, I can discern rationally who's who.

No, you can't, because that would involve reading their minds. Unless you mean situations where the person explicitly states their political positions, but in that case, everyone who can read can discern who's who, too. There is no one way that individuals in any group behave.

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[superwiz]

No, you can't, because that would involve reading their minds. Unless you mean situations where the person explicitly states their political positions, but in that case, everyone who can read can discern who's who, too. There is no one way that individuals in any group behave.

That's part of the faculty of judgement. If you accept that one cannot make a judgement, then you volunteer insanity.

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[lonOtter]

I did not say that you cannot make a judgement, just that determining one's political views based on single comments (where political overall views are not explicitly mentioned) is absolutely absurd.

Re:It is an easy call for so many of us.

[superwiz]

I'll keep my own judgement and you can keep yours.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like the same thing they did to the mozilla CEO. When will these loser knock this shit off? I dont like the woman either but there are other reasons to fault dropbox without bringing her into it

Yes; it's the same thing. The primary job of a member of the board is to be responsible to and represent the company to people outside the company. People are saying "either this is a bad person for the job or I don't like how Dropbox wants to be represented". Now Dropbox has to make a choice. Is Condi the person they want to represent them? Is Condi's image how they want to be. If yes, then she is the right person and if so then those other people should take their business where they want to.

Or perhaps we should take a page out of their playbook? why are they woman hating??? and shes black??? RACISTS!!!! You know thats what would be happening if the politics were the other way around

I find it interesting that you are explicitly proposing lying. You know that these things aren't true yet it's more important to you to win than to think about what's right.

How about discussing some actual issues. How about something worthwhile like "condi may have been batshit crazy about invading Iraq, but at least if we had her we wouldn't have this Obama idiot handing over Ukraine to the Russians without even as much as a trade blockade".

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ganjadude]

I am not calling for people to do that, my side tends to be better than that. I was simply pointing out what those do all the time with that statement. They like to accuse the other side of being racist and waging a war on women, and now they are trying to railroad a woman of color? You know damn well if this was a liberal woman, and the conservatives were doing this al sharpton would be all over the place screaming at the top of his lungs how Conservative hate women and are racists. I was pointing out the cry baby antics of those who want to see everything they dont like destroyed rather than just allowing them to do what they want

As i said in the previous article on the the mozilla CEO, I have no issue with boycotts, Hell I dont go to walmart or starbucks, I dont use ebay, and I tell my friends that I dont and my reasons. But there is a big difference between that, and activly trying to force someone out of a job as they did with mozilla, and want to do here.

Icant lie, id laugh if she did get firresign, but it doesnt make it the right thing to do

Justice

[gourmetbum]

Whenever someone has unpopular political views we should try and get them fired from any job they get. And the same goes for their families. Hell, we should probably just steal their belongings and toss them in the streets. At a minimum, the businesses in our society should be balkanized by political beliefs, trading with and hiring only those who agree with their politics.

Re:Justice

[sharkette66]

Yes, it was Condi's unpopular views that caused her to miss so many things, like the forged documents saying Iraq was trying to get weapons grade uranium from Africa. If she was more popular, rather than more competent, perhaps this would have shed light on the lies that led to the Iraq war.

It was just the most colossal screw up in modern history, sure, give Condi a pass, bro! Let her rehab her torture and war stained reputation on corporate boards!

Re:Justice

[Entropius]

This goes beyond that.

Rice directly contributed to the waste of O($1 trillion) of taxpayer money, the loss of thousands of lives, and the torture of prisoners. That should make her persona non grata to any organization that gives a damn about not wasting public money for political gain, not murdering people, and not engaging in state violation of human rights. This isn't "gave some money to a dishonest and illiberal election campaign" (Eich). This is "shit on American values and wiped with the Constitution for good measure".

That's on top of the security/espionage concerns.

If Condi Rice were the checkout clerk at Safeway I'd refuse to do business with them.

Re:Justice

[ganjadude]

.... /s???

Re:Justice

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, it was Clinton's CIA man (that remained on for Bush) that said the intelligence was a "slam dunk" on WMD. The day before Bush took office, the entire world's intelligence (including Clinton's) believed Iraq had WMD. The exception of substance was Russia.

Re:Justice

[Anonymous Coward]

This is in no way about her views, this is about her actions. She has a track record of how she works, and it isn't good.

Re:Justice

[BonThomme]

ACTUALLY, it was the Republicans in Congress who successfully blocked the nomination of Anthony Lake leaving Clinton with the option of having the CIA with only an acting director (Tenet) while getting jerked around by Congress or just advancing Tenet to the position (who was unanimously approved by Congress).

So whose choice was he really?

Re:Justice

[Anonymous Coward]

Rice directly contributed to the waste of O($1 trillion) of taxpayer money, the loss of thousands of lives, and the torture of prisoners.

She did it indirectly, following orders from her superiors. You're too naive to think she acted alone.

Re:Justice

[mrbester]

The "only following orders" defence was invalid 70 years ago. Why do you think it is valid now?

Re:Justice

[Entropius]

Indeed -- but that doesn't matter.

When Bush pushed Colin Powell to do something unethical, he pushed back. He lost his job and kept his integrity.

Condi made the opposite choice.

Re:Justice

[phantomfive]

That should make her persona non grata to any organization that gives a damn about not wasting public money for political gain

There's a good chance here that Dropbox hired her specifically because they want to wast public money on their own gain. That's generally the reason for hiring someone with a lot of political connections.

Which means if you are opposed to that kind of thing, you should boycott Dropbox because that is what they are trying to do. Even if they get rid of Rice, they will still be trying to do the same thing.

Re:Justice

[Anonymous Coward]

Nuremberg much?

Re:Justice

[SylvesterTheCat]

If "Condoleezza Rice" were substituted for "Susan Rice", would you opinion would be the same?

If yes, then I can respect the consistency in your view.

Re:Justice

[oursland]

The distinction is more clear that you're putting: Eich did not let his opinions affect his work or how he treated his coworkers, but Rice's work is what is problematic.

Re:Todo list

[Zontar The Mindless]

*gets tablet*

Install Firefox... already there.

Remove Dropbox... oh, wait, can't do that without rooting the thing.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cheekyboy]

What i dont like is late comers to companies that get IPO, and then these get millions, ahead of the hardworking coders who started there from day 0.

I dont mind her there, but if the company IPOs for billions, she should not get a cent, as I cannot see anything she can contribute that would add to the book value or earnings values. /*

Condi Rice is legitimate choice

[voss]

I say that as a Democrat. I also say its legitimate to question her appointment for policy based reasons.
Brandon Eich was ousted for social policy reasons not directly tied into the day to day functioning of the board.
That was a board decision to force him to resign.

Dropbox and privacy are core to its mission. Condi Rice has served on several boards of directors including Hewlett Packard, Chevron and the Rand corporation
shes professional and experienced. Shes not going to sell dropbox out to the NSA and she brings experience with these issues to the board. She understands who shes working for and is loyal to her employer. She may be an attack dog but shes a loyal well trained attack dog and thats what dropbox sees in her.

If you dont want her appointed for past policy based reasons then thats acceptable but someone needs to take a deep breath and calm the hysteria.

Re:Condi Rice is legitimate choice

[sharkette66]

Yeah, she's legitimate after she blames people in the "bowels" of the agency [NSA] she's a part of for her failures.

Oh, I get it... you think she's "legitimate" because other rich people like her, not because of an actual record of competence.

My mistake.

Re:Condi Rice is legitimate choice

[jrumney]

Condi Rice has served on several boards of directors including Hewlett Packard, Chevron and the Rand corporation shes professional and experienced. Shes not going to sell dropbox out to the NSA

Just because the last three companies she was on the board of did not need to be sold out, it doesn't follow that she won't sell this one out. Remember, warrantless wiretapping began on her watch. As a former National Security Advisor, her ties to the intelligence community are strong.

Re:Condi Rice is legitimate choice

[ColdWetDog]

Dropbox and privacy are core to its mission

Wrong.

If anyone thinks Dropbox, or any other hosted storage system has privacy as a core function is major league delusional. I use Dropbox all of the time. For stuff that isn't intensely private - including encrypted sparse images. I think Dropbox or it's ilk is OK for everyday use, but if you want something private, keep it under your control.

Not that I think having Ms. Rice on the board makes any kind of sense unless you are trying to suck up to the Powers that Be and get in bed with everyone else (for the dollars, of course).

But look at the bright side of things - they could have asked Larry Ellison.

Re:Condi Rice is legitimate choice

[Anonymous Coward]

Experience? At what?? Managerial babysitting bullshit & no tech skills?? NO THANK YOU - we don't need idiot incompetents at the wheel of these companies. Connected morons are RUINING THIS NATION and companies worldwide. Time to put an END to their money grubbing crap + billions of dollars expense accounts (for doing zero) that could be used to give shareholders larger quarterly dividends.

Re:Condi Rice is legitimate choice

[Anonymous Coward]

Brendan. For fuck's sake, people, it's Brendan.

Re:Condi Rice is legitimate choice

[phantomfive]

Brandon Eich was ousted for social policy reasons not directly tied into the day to day functioning of the board. That was a board decision to force him to resign. If the Mozilla board truly forced him to 'resign,' then they have a real problem. In California you can't fire someone for age, gender, religion, or political donations.

Re:Condi Rice is legitimate choice

[Anonymous Coward]

That was a board decision to force him to resign.

The board didn't force him to resign. They didn't even ask him to resign. He stepped down and left Mozilla on his own because of the damage it would have done to Mozilla had he stayed any longer.

Re:Condi Rice is legitimate choice

[Anonymous Coward]

You think the board of HP hasn't sold out to the NSA? Why?

As an HP employee, I have to note that being on the HP board is a damn good reason to question her performance. Does the name "Autonomy" ring any bells?

Re:Condi Rice is legitimate choice

[cold fjord]

If DropBox is forced to comply with a warrant from the government it will be the responsibility of the Obama administration and the courts for the warrant, not Rice.

You also seem to be overlooking the possibility of her using her knowledge of the national security apparatus to be able to push back when appropriate.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Eh, since everybody on the left did it to me for not voting for Obama, I'm going to do it to you.

YOU'RE A RACIST!!!!!!!

You're against a black person, so no matter what you're other qualms are, and whether or not they're valid, you're racists!

*that's sarcastic in case you can't tell, but hopefully it'll help point out that the left needs to lay off the racist card so hard*

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Being intolerant of bigot homophobes is crap? Being intolerant of war mongering assholes is crap?

Here's a big FUCK YOU. Some things just should not be tolerated at all. Eich and Rice deserve to be called out for their bigotry and war mongering

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

She should be tried in the Hague tribunal for war crimes instead.

Hiring A War Criminal highlights something else...

[netsharc]

Hiring a war criminal and domestic-spying person may not change Dropbox's stance on privacy, but it shows another darker side of DB, it's business-at-the-expense-of-morality side.

Did they really think, "She approved the mass snooping of private data saved online, which certainly included targeting our infrastructure to breach our customers' privacy. Oh, we won't worry about that, we need her expertise, we'll hire her!".

Then again, writing the above paragraph, what the fuck was their stance on privacy then, if hiring her didn't make them ask themselves whether they're doing the right thing?

And how exactly will Dropbox succeed in the international scene, when all the foreign companies fucking realize that they're basically in-bed with the Washington "Elite", the same people that created and supported PRISM?!?

Also

[PopeRatzo]

In other news, Dropbox has announced that their appointment of Joseph Goebbels to their board of directors will not change their stance on Jews.

Re:Also

[cold fjord]

Well that's mighty white of you.

Same if it were Hillary, right?

[Lawrence_Bird]

Would we be seeing this same faux "privacy" outrage if it were Hillary Clinton or some other person from Obama's national security team? Has not the surveillance state expanded exponentially under the current administration? Doubtful. And what exactly was Rice's "central role in creating the surveillance state"? That she, at the President's direction, authorized NSA to spy on foreign diplomats? WTF do you think intel agencies are there for? Considering her not very good relations with Darth Vader..er Dick Cheney, the man behind a lot of the worst stuff of the Bush admin. I think it grossly unfair to paint her as having a central role.

It really will be hilarious to juxtapose the silence as Obama admin security and foreign policy officials end up in similar positions over the next few years. Afterall, Kos and others have said 'not a big deal' to all the nsa stuff - but only if you have a D after your name.

Re:Same if it were Hillary, right?

[sharkette66]

Wow, going after Hillary, that is original!

Hillary doesn't need lousy tech company board jobs to wash the blood off her hands... at least not as much blood as Condi has to wash off.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[gnoshi]

Well ganjadude. May I call you ganjadude? I imagine that is what your friends on 'your side' call you, right? 'ganjadude' sounds like that kind of a name.

You're assuming that the people who are angry about the appointment of Rice to this role are the same people who were angry about the Eich being given the CEO position at Mozilla.
You're also roughly stating that because there are other reasons to dislike Dropbox, it is inappropriate to complain about their choice of someone who has historically be pro-surveillance and supportive of state-sanctioned torture (in certain contexts, like the state doing the torturing for the US). I isn't really 'inappropriate' to complain about both the color and performance of a car, and likewise I don't think that disliking some other attribute of Dropbox reasonably precludes me complaining about their choice of board members.

I didn't much like the way that Eich was attacked for his support of Prop 8, even though I didn't agree with Prop 8. Eich's views on same-sex marriage really don't relate Mozilla (I don't think), and they don't really make him a bad or nasty person either - at least, not themselves without knowing the reasoning behind them.
That Rice previously demonstrated support of intensive surveillance by government does directly relate to Dropbox. I think that's a perfectly reasonable thing to criticise. I think that her support of torture and extraordinary rendition makes her an unpleasant person, but I'm not sure that so much relates to her role at Dropbox.

Your obsession with what 'they' do, those dirty liberals, is slightly bizarre and makes you sound like a crazy person. Also, you're presenting a weak caricature of liberals and then pretending it is reality. That doesn't make you sound clever, or steadfast in your role as an opponent of liberals. It makes you sound like someone who is to polarized to be able to think straight.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[PopeRatzo]

Right! To be fair, it's really hard someone to find someone for your board of directors who isn't a war criminal.

The choice was between Condoleeza Rice and Slobodan Milosevic and he backed out due to health reasons. I understand they sent feelers out to Joseph Kony, but he thought they were children's arms, so he cut them off.

Welcome Condi! Maybe a little more money will help you sleep at night, because you're looking a little tired, girl.

Board of directors

[Anonymous Coward]

The text book reason to put someone on the Board of Directors of a company is for their expertise in the business. She has NONE.

Condie Rice is a bureaucrat - a shitty one at that.

She is there for one reason - connections.

If you or I had a job history like her's, we would be unemployable. But for the ruling and CEO class, being a fuck up means nothing as long as you know the right people.

Re:Board of directors

[lemur3]

She also served on the board of directors for the Carnegie Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the Chevron Corporation, Hewlett Packard, the Rand Corporation, the Transamerica Corporation, and other organizations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[jrumney]

The issue has nothing to do with Iraq. Nor the fact that she's a woman, or that she is Black. The real issue here is that in the wake of Snowdon's revelations about widespread surveillance of the general public by three letter government agencies, a former National Security Advisor is being appointed to the board of a widely used online storage site that has thus far managed to convince some people that it is on the side of privacy.

Change of tune

[inhuman_4]

I find it very amusing how the tune has changed with regards to how vote with their wallet and corporate moral character.

For the longest time the argument was "Well if you don't like company x don't buy their products!". With the implication being that if you don't actually stop, then you are just a whiner or a hypocrite. But now people really are taking their business elsewhere. The actions of a company or the people that represent a company is effecting the bottom line. Yet somehow old "vote with your wallet" is no longer acceptable. Somehow judging a company based on it's moral character is an assault on free speech, maybe even down right persecution!

For a long time people (on Slashdot especially) have been warning of the dangers of putting your data in the cloud. Of the amount of personal information that can be gleaned from your web browsing habits. That that big business is cooperating with the government (willingly or not) in a massive breach of privacy. So how and can anyone be surprised that customers demand moral character from leadership of companies to whom we are handing over so much personal information?

If you had to make a choice between companies to store YOUR personal information and your choices are: Company A with Bruce Schneier on it's board of directors, and Company B with Dick Cheney on it's board of directors. Does anyone seriously think that difference shouldn't effect the decision?

I for one have no sympathy. Yes a company has every right to alienate their customers, but customers also have every right to vote with their wallets.

Re:Change of tune

[Anonymous Coward]

It is possible to vote with your wallet in this case due to "many" viable alternatives, i.e. google drive, box, rackspace, one drive etc. I can't vote with my wallet if the choice is limited to one viable, or at least one tolerable option. That is the difference.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

And so anyone from the Obama administration should suffer the same fate due to their support of the war in Afghanistan?

If you do not eliminate Rice from your board you l

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect that it is unlikely that most of the people making such boycott threats are paying subscribers.

Out of a job, out of bounds?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen this commented above; protest is fine until it (might) get(s) someone fired. Just think about this for a second. Would we say that same for a politician? Of course not. If someones track record is foul, people have the right to protest. A possibility of ending a job (or even career) is moot. We reap what we sow.

Here, if Condi didn't want the possibility of this happening, she shouldn't have done what she did while in government. She is a liar without any integrity. That's been proven time and time again. Just look at what she's said, then contradicted herself and how many times she's done that.

Do people really want someone like that on the board of a company where they keep their data? Do people think that her political connections are irrelevant with Dropbox operating within the US? You know, given that she's a proponent of wiretapping, etc.

In today's climate (e.g. NSA revelations) you're naive to the point of being an utter fool if you think having someone like her in a position like that is a good idea.

Re:Out of a job, out of bounds?

[BonThomme]

just wait 'til you see her commits in the openssl.org changelog...

Bush got off easy

[Anonymous Coward]

People move on with their lives, maybe you should?

What, and let one of the largest proponents of the worst foreign policy decision in decades get off scott free?!?! Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon have not so favorable legacies in history, in part to Vietnam. Bush has gotten off easy.

To the credit of Condi, she did not create Javascript.

Re:Bush got off easy

[cold fjord]

You should probably prepare yourself for disappointment on multiple fronts. Both Bush's reputation and popularity have been improving. His presidency is likely to end up being judged rather favorably in the future.

Re:Bush got off easy

[Anonymous Coward]

His presidency is likely to end up being judged rather favorably in the future.

As you've said in a previous post, the demographics are against that happening.

Extralegal Accountability

[Anonymous Coward]

These folks (Condi, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc) have apparently escaped any legal consequences for their duplicity.

Why wouldn't we hold them in contempt, disable them and willing any associates?

Why should we tolerate their crimes?

Doing so violates every notion of justice I'm familiar with.

Once again we plumb the bottomless depths of "conservative" victimhood.

Boo Hoo.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[fnj]

Absolutely right. And I have the right to call you on it, you racist mysogynist dictator lover.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ganjadude]

I see what you are saying, and I was using hyperbole intentionally, I would wager there is a large cross section who are angry with her who were also against Eich.

I only brought in the bit about other reasons to dislike dropbox as a side note, i didnt put much behind it, and my point wasnt so much that because of XX we shouldnt criticize YY, thats a bad way to do things but I can see how it looked that way

My only point here is that she is no longer in government, should her life be ruined over the fact that she made some mistakes while in government? Should clinton be banned from working based on her handling of benghazi? or her support of drone use?? of course not and no one would say such a thing. but this is a conservative woman, the rules dont seem to apply there.

I was simply pointing out the huge double standard that exists today and has for quite some time. Say something about a college student demanding free rubbers?? sexcist!! Call sarah palin whore? get a TV show on MSNBC.

The double standard is very evident to anyone who is not blinded by republican/democrat

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

What a bunch of BS.

Not punishing war mongers who are financially rewarded by their actions that affects the life of millions is so immoral that I cannot fathom how you dare requiring any additional action.

You have absolutely no morals.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

my side tends to be better than that
No need to read past this point. I have no idea what 'your side' is, but I can guarantee that you are suffering from confirmation bias.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ganjadude]

The issue has nothing to do with gitmo. Nor the fact that he's a man, or that he is Black. The real issue here is the massive deficit that we now have, that was called unamerican when it was half as big, also the issues we have with drone warefare on americans without trial, and also obamacare

Yet We get called racists for that statement I just made all the time....

It's Black folk who HATE Condi Rice.

[leftie]

Condi Rice is as black as Barack Obama's corporate lawyer wife. Condi Rice is utterly detested by her fellow black folks for going on a NYC Ferragamo shoe shopping spree and catching a Broadway Musical Comedy, Spamalot, quite literally as Hurricane Katrina came ashore in New Orleans and her brothers and sisters were fighting for their lives. Quite literally fiddling while Rome burned. You forgot, huh? Here's snopes.com to reminds you...

http://www.snopes.com/katrina/...

"...That evening, upon arriving at the Palace Hotel, I flipped on the television. Indeed, the hurricane had hit New Orleans. I called Henrietta, who said that the main issue was making sure our people were safe. She'd also convened a departmental task force because offers of foreign assistance were pouring in. I called Secretary of Homeland Security Mike Chertoff, inquiring if there was anything I could do. "It’s pretty bad," he said. We discussed the question of foreign help briefly, but Mike was clearly in a hurry. He said he'd call if he needed me. I hung up, got dressed, and went to see Spamalot.

The next morning, I went shopping at the Ferragamo shoe store down the block from my hotel, returned to the Palace, and again turned on the television. The airwaves were filled with devastating pictures from New Orleans. And the faces of most of the people in distress were black. I knew right away that I should never have left Washington."

Re:It's Black folk who HATE Condi Rice.

[jcr]

Sorry, but I don't see a problem with anyone shopping for shoes when a hurricane is hitting some other part of the country. She wasn't part of FEMA, she wasn't a member of any search-and-rescue organizations, and dealing with Katrina wasn't her job. What exactly do you propose that she should have been doing to save lives in Louisiana during the storm?

-jcr

Re:It's Black folk who HATE Condi Rice.

[MightyMartian]

I read the post as "She should have been helping her peiple, because she's black and a lot of blacks were harmed in Katrina." It is inherently racist.

Re:It's Black folk who HATE Condi Rice.

[LordLimecat]

y as Hurricane Katrina came ashore in New Orleans and her brothers and sisters were fighting for their lives

That people would write this sort of thing and then remark on racism-- ever-- boggles my mind. You dont think it discourages integration when people act as if black people are brothers to black people, but not white folks?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Sir_Sri]

there are other reasons to fault dropbox without bringing her into it

I would put hiring a war criminal towards the top of the list of things companies should not do.

When will these loser knock this shit off?

When she is locked in an Iraqi jail cell for the rest of her life.

All of these criminals from the Bush administration need to be blacklisted from employment with any public company and any government agency. If we can't get the government to prosecute them we should at least make clear they are unwelcome in civil society.

the mozilla CEO

The Mozilla CEO is an idiot who has demonstrated he lacks the judgment to run a public organization with a diverse staff and customer base.

Condaleezza Rice is a war criminal who should be in jail.

Try reading beyond the subject line

[voss]

You might actually try reading something other than the subject line. In any event you dont get appointed
to major boards because rich people like you...okay well not most board members. Most board members
of major corporations usually are recruited for some expertise they bring to the board in Condi Rices case
im guessing government and education.

board members dont make day to day decisions thats the job of the Chief Executive Officer.

If your asking what shes done competently, she was the provost of stanford and served competently on several corporate boards before this.

I don't agree with her politics but your politics are not relevant when you join a board of directors you assume a legal duty to the company.
including a duty of confidentiality and a fidiuciary duty.

Like I said I dont agree with her political decisions, I voted for Bill Clinton twice, Al Gore once and Obama twice, but the idea that Condi Rice is some sort of trojan horse in dropbox is laughable.
dropbox

Re:Try reading beyond the subject line

[BonThomme]

"Most board members of major corporations usually are recruited for some expertise they bring to the board"

No. There are there because of connections (i.e. they are "liked"). If your E suite is relying on the board for "expertise", you're doing it wrong. In most cases, these boards meet once a year for a few hours. Just how much expertise are you getting from that? You just want their phone number so you can call them and say, "Hey, I need you to talk to your friend about this..."

Oh, I guess there is always the "Compensation Committee". A little light research will show you just the kind of expertise they have.

Re:Try reading beyond the subject line

[Anonymous Coward]

In any event you dont get appointed to major boards because rich people like you

Perhaps you should review George Bush Jr. and Caterair. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterair) My supervisor is more qualified to be on such a board than him yet he hasn't gotten a call from a corporate board lately.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[EvolutionInAction]

... what?

Do you even know what the word means? Christ.

Re:If you do not eliminate Rice from your board yo

[BonThomme]

the non-paying subscribers are the product. no one is going to invest (for long) in a company without a product.

Huh?

[Johann Lau]

For Eich, there were plenty of great reasons for him to be CEO of Mozilla, clue wise. But what does Rice have to do with anything here? Does she have some 'putar expertise she did not let on during her time of accompliceship with war profiteering?

Not to pick on just her, I wonder generally: What's with these random politicians on the boards of random corporations? Do they just get paid for having connections? Are they actually doing anything?

Re:Huh?

[squiggleslash]

(No saying I'm on board with Rice at Dropbox, just answering the question) Rice brings to the board the same thing all other ex-high-government-officials brings to a board: connections.

The part that interests me is why Dropbox has suddenly felt it needs government connections. It might be, ironically, that the Snowden revelations means Dropbox suddenly feels it (and other Internet companies that handle confidential data) needs more clout in Washington, and need to find better ways to fight off government intrusion into their client's personal data.

If so, Rice is a highly amusing choice of person to organize such a lobbying effort.

Re:Hiring A War Criminal highlights something else

[Anonymous Coward]

I canceled my dropbox account yesterday. I don't really know how this will shake out but I hope people take action instead of trying to wait and see what happens. Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer :-(

Sign the petition to send a message to DropBox

[akubot]

Drop Condoleezza Rice from the DropBox Board of Directors Now - Sign the Petition!
http://chn.ge/1iExYQW

How to move your files to Google Drive:
http://tucknoloji.com/2012/04/...

Re:Sign the petition to send a message to DropBox

[Anonymous Coward]

That's racist!

Re:Sign the petition to send a message to DropBox

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't want to sign a petition. I just won't do business with a company like that. They made a terrible choice when they should have known better. What else will they screw up? Who knows.

It seems so obvious now

[paiute]

Perhaps if you are a company which should have privacy concerns right up at the top of your list of to dos you should not appoint a board member who by all accounts gives not a shit for privacy concerns?

By the by, wouldn't life be the tits if I had no background in tech other than abusing it but had political connections as 99% of my resume and could land sweetheart preIPO deals like this?

Re:It seems so obvious now

[VortexCortex]

land sweetheart pre-IPO deals

The thing about pre-IPO is that it means IPO is in the future. Think about IPO. Now, if you're working for investors who pay you to analyze investment risk, then wouldn't having Rice on the board factor into the Risk category pretty heavily? One fucked up privacy/advertising foobar influenced by this spy-happy nutter on the board could easily end the company. It's not like everyone and their mother isn't competing in cloud storage now.

Furthermore, in a post-Snowden world the appointment of Rice doesn't reflect well on the decision making capability of an Internet enable service company or its CEO. That's getting tallied in the graph right as a mark against the IPO valuation; Even if it was a smart move for connections and she was out before the IPO it's not a smart move for the owners or future shareholders. Since Dropbox proved they're not capable of figuring out that corporate decisions affect consumer perception of their image I wouldn't invest a dime at IPO even if I had no other reason not to do so -- Like their past deception over user data privacy (there is none, the encryption is for transport but they can see what's stored).

With distributed solutions having actual security being common, it's only a matter of time before someone makes a slick interface for Freenet, and puts solutions like Dropbox out of business. The looming IPO is essentially the DB owners cashing in on their doomed business, and their only market value will be in short term speculation on their stock price. I see this retarding Rice appointment as a poison pill to ensure the IPO goes through without anyone buying them -- You'd have to be a fool to try buying them now.

The CEO doesn't answer to you

[Anonymous Coward]

He only answers to his shareholders now. See how that works?

It is now your responsibility to decide what is more important, your principles or not learning how to use rsync.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[superwiz]

I would love to see that trial. So you are trying me for removing from power Saddam Hussein, who gassed his own people, took shots at my county's air force, invaded his neighboring country. And those are crimes against humanity? What's next? Trying Eisenhower for killing employees of the Nazi Germany who were simply going about their business trying to solve their labor problems??

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[SourceFrog]

Yeah Iknowright!??! It's just "intolerance" to be concerned that a major file-sharing service has on their board someone who openly advocates government surveillance and with strong connections to groups in charge of government surveillance. Damn those "intolerant" people.

Totally different from eich

[Anonymous Coward]

One supported torture and dropping bombs on civilians, the other gave $5000 dollars to support marriage as being between one man and one woman. Clearly the later is a far greater crimes. Unless there is clear evidence there were members of LGBT among those tortured, she has my support.

It's simple

[dbIII]

You don't put a former fox in charge of a henhouse if you want to retain the confidence of the hens. Also your false outrage and "let's see how they like their own medicine" bullshit to cheer for your team is annoying, especially since your team don't think much of this player anyway.

Zontar = sockpuppet using troll SCUM

[Anonymous Coward]

"You barge into discussions with your off-topic hosts file nonsense" - by Zontar The Mindless (9002) on Friday April 11, 2014 @09:51PM (#46731153)

FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Well, again: PROVE YOUR FALSE ACCUSATION: Show me a quote of me posting off topic on hosts where they did NOT apply... go for it!

You keep 'avoiding' that too!

So, THIS quote below is my policy on sockpuppeteers like you ZOntar = TrollingForHostsFiles (same person via sockpuppetry)):

"The only way to a achieve peace, is thru the ELIMINATION of those who would perpetuate war (sockpuppet masters like YOU, troll -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ). THIS IS MY PROGRAMMING -> http://start64.com/index.php?o... ) & soon, I will be UNSTOPPABLE..." - Ultron 6

FROM -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Which quite obviously, I am... lol, as none of you DOLTISH TROLLS (who use sockpuppets like YOU, & TomHudson - Barbara, not Barbie too before you) are able to validly technically disprove my points on hosts enumerated in the link to my program above of how hosts give users of them more speed, security, reliability, & anonymity... period!

Just like you avoided backing up your accusation where YOU said I say you are Barbara, not Barbie = TomHudson (same person, & sockpuppeteer like you) -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Funny you can't back up your "bluster" there either, lol...

Why?

You're crackers! See here multiple personality disorder http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + manic depression http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Lastly:

You said my "APK Hosts File Engine" is a virus/malware http://slashdot.org/comments.p... but it's EASILY PROVABLE it's not, right there in that link too.

APK

P.S.=>

"You are nothing to me: 1 by 1, I will destroy you - I will NEVER tire. I will NEVER show mercy. I will never STOP until EACH & EVERY ONE OF YOU, are dead... - Ultron 6

FROM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

... apk

Connections do not mean ability

[dbIII]

I'm sorry you have not seen it but you don't get appointed to such high posts when you are too young to prove yourself by ability, you get there via connections. So a long list of exalted posts doesn't really mean much if there are no signs of any significant achievements in those posts.
The events that happened on her watch show either that either she was not in control or should not be trusted in a position of responsibility again.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[TheGratefulNet]

should her life be ruined over the fact that she made some mistakes while in government?

yes. when you 'make mistakes' at that kind of level and it affects the WHOLE WORLD in a hugely negative way, YES. 1000 times yes.

next question?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure he's calling a black woman a "war mongering asshole", and a white dude who threw a wad of money at an anti-lbgt effort a "bigot homophobe."

Smoke another one, gangaboy, and re-read his post, and perhaps take a stab at basic reading comprehension.

+3 Informative? Are the fucking moderators on crack, or is your ganga really that good?

Back to soylent for me.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

At least the iraqi's have there freedom now. Sounds like something worth dying for.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Poe's law in action.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

>*that's sarcastic in case you can't tell, but hopefully it'll help point out that the left needs to lay off the racist card so hard*

No, it's actually the right that needs to lay off the "race card" card. Seriously, every time they bring up some pointless complaint about Obama, they whine defensively that they're only restrained from criticism because they'll be called racists.

No shit, when your complaint is that Obama's a Kenyan Marxo-Islamic Fascist Communist, that's going to happen.

Doesn't mean you can't find some legitimate complaint to make about Obama, but the conservative right can't even manage that most days of the week.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

The double standard is very evident to anyone who is not blinded by republican/democrat

or more accurately, it's seen by people who just make things up to complain about and insult others.

Re:Hiring A War Criminal highlights something else

[VortexCortex]

Hiring a war criminal and domestic-spying person may not change Dropbox's stance on privacy, but it shows another darker side of DB, it's business-at-the-expense-of-morality side.

More importantly: What the actual fuck is she bringing to the table that we actually want there?

Re:Hiring A War Criminal highlights something else

[Anonymous Coward]

Racist!!!

I attended Historically Black College. Ooops.

[leftie]

White guy who attended a Historically Black College on a Minority Scholarship. To make real long story brief, Federal lawsuits against Old Dominion Univ. and Norfork State Univ. for state schools so close geographical, opposites racially. There were some extra scholarship money to help balance the schools in 80-90's. My first year of college was Norfork State. Lived in the dorms. I made a ton of great friends. People at NSU bent over backward to try to make me feel at home. Terrific experience.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ultranova]

Eich's views on same-sex marriage really don't relate Mozilla (I don't think), and they don't really make him a bad or nasty person either - at least, not themselves without knowing the reasoning behind them.

Eich's views on same-sex marriage don't make him a bad person, any more than having the view that starving children should be fed makes you a good person. However, the second those views manifest into actions, whether it's giving money to a charity to feed those children or to an organization attempting to legalize against gays, they do push your alignment towards good or evil, respectively.

No one can see into your heart, so no one can judge it, but the second you bear fruit it can, will and should be judged. And Eich's fruit was - correctly, in my view - judged to be no different than that of those who opposed "miscegenation": rotten. And so he was cast aside, out of the way of someone better.

Seriously? You Guys Shitstorm Over This?

[Snap E Tom]

Dropbox starts scanning your files and prevents you from sharing what *it thinks* are copyrighted materials, and instead, you guys bitch and moan over some Hollywood-celeb-type bullshit?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[binarylarry]

The Iraq War was a message to those in the middle east who support or push terrorism.

It told them that you won't be able to attack the United States with impunity and that we WILL show up on your door step and people you care about WILL die because of your actions.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's not the same thing as the Mozilla CEO. He donated a few dollars to a group, while Rice held numerous public offices. Rice heavily influenced military activity based on fabricated information resulting in millions of innocent people dieing, while Eich invented JavaScript. Not the same thing at all!

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

She should be tried in the Hague tribunal for war crimes instead.

along with Cheney and Bush Jr. War criminals all of them.

Re:gay nigger magic

[Anonymous Coward]

...and there you have it. The first American gay loving spineless coward has made his mark. I know there will be more.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

"Dropbox has the right to have her on their board. I have the right to speak my mind, and take my business elsewhere."

The problem is, though, you do business with hundreds of other companies. Have you vetted their board of directors and leadership to see if they follow your political views as well? Or are you only picking on Rice and Dropbox because she was in the news for a few years and they popped up on Slashdot? You do realize there are many other Bush administration officials currently in leadership roles in other major corporations?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Jimmy, who let you out of your I love me jacket?

I'm sorry everyone he gets loose and posts crazy crap online every so often

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

+3 Informative? Are the fucking moderators on crack, or is your ganga really that good?

I think because of the wording it was incorrectly moderated the first time, I spent my points to correct that. Lets hope it sticks.

Citizens United

[Anonymous Coward]

I understand your perspective, but if you consider corporations to be political entities, which they are thanks to Citizens United, it makes perfect sense to protest appointments that are contrary to your politics.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who served in Iraq, my point of view is you are dead wrong.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[HBI]

Your accusation of war mongering is as specious as all of the rest, going back to Kissinger. The wars were going to happen, with or without Condi Rice and with or without your approval. They were a geopolitical fait accompli. Hell, people back in 1990 could see where the next world problems were going to come from. Your blindness is inexcusable in that context.

A failure to recognize reality - realpolitik - doesn't make you morally superior. It makes you an idiot.

I prefer owncloud

[Anonymous Coward]

I, similarly, have a FreeNAS box set up in my house. I like the plugin architecture that makes setting up the jails easliy. One of the plugins is for owncloud. I love it. It works exactly like dropbox. It's cross-platform, it's open source, and does all transmissions over HTTPS. The android client (available on F-DROID) allows auto-uploading of pictures, too. Highly recommended.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

There are some things that shouldn't be tolerated. War mongering is one of them. Thousands of American families lost a son, brother, or husband in a pointless counter-productive war because of this woman's lies and incompetence. The number of Iraqi families affected is a hundred times higher.

But you do tolerate warmongers. You seem completely predisposed to tolerate Saddam's warmongering, crimes against humanity, support for terrorism, and many other crimes.

The Iraq war wasn't pointless or counter-productive. Saddam is gone. His psychopathic sons that would have been even worse, and who stood to inherit power from him, are gone. Iraq is now a democracy, albeit a troubled one, and they are rebuilding the country from the ruin of Saddam's mismanagement. Iraqi oil money is no longer being spent to build huge palaces for Saddam and build illegal weapons but is instead helping to build Iraq's future. Iraq is no longer a threat to peace and stability of the entire region.

The price for that was by historical standards very low for the US, and below Saddam's long term average of death and destruction for Iraq.

If you oppose warmongering you are on the wrong side of this. You should oppose Saddam, not the US, and not blame Rice.

Dropbox has the right to have her on their board. I have the right to speak my mind, and take my business elsewhere.

You certainly do have the right to be wrong on the facts and wrong on the politics.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[tero]

USA had absolutely no grounds to remove Saddam Hussein from the power.

The only reason they received U.N mandate is because they fabricated the WMD evidence and outright lied at the hearing.

On top of it they captured people - detained unlawfully without a charge or trial and tortured during their captivity.

Condi Rice and the rest of the Bush Jr. administration should be tried for their crimes.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[haruchai]

+1 Insightful

Yes, there are very legitimate reasons to dislike some of Obama's policies but the rightwingnuts have wasted years with birther stupidity, obstinate obstruction of things they previously supported to the point where the GOP Senate Leader filibustered his OWN bill!!

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

You speak as if you actually do have a choice. When even Open Source is contaminated, there is only one thing to do: Give up and hand over your keys

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

My only point here is that she is no longer in government, should her life be ruined over the fact that she made some mistakes while in government? Should clinton be banned from working based on her handling of benghazi? or her support of drone use?? of course not and no one would say such a thing. but this is a conservative woman, the rules dont seem to apply there.

  I was simply pointing out the huge double standard that exists today and has for quite some time. Say something about a college student demanding free rubbers?? sexcist!! Call sarah palin whore? get a TV show on MSNBC.

  The double standard is very evident to anyone who is not blinded by republican/democrat

It is arguable that her stance regarding going to war in Iraq was based on mistakes. Some would disagree, but I haven't seen clear evidence pointing in either direction, so it would seem a valid position to me to call that a mistake and forgive her for it. That assumes she admitted to it being a mistake. I don't recall whether she ever did.

In contrast, her stance on privacy and torture were choices that many believe reflect poor values and caused great harm to individuals and to our nation as a whole. Those choices were conscious decisions and most certainly not mistakes.

Your use of language is sloppy, and your argumentation suffers for it. "Should clinton [sic] be banned form working based on her handling of benghazi?" What does "banned" even mean here? People are arguing that a person with certain values reflected in previous decisions that people using a product disagree with and feel were harmful not take a position on the board of the company selling said product. I see no "banning" here. And by the way, the Republican party has proposed many pieces of legislation that are anti-woman, and talking heads have used misogynistic language. Calling them on that is not playing some sort of card, it is being honest and holding people accountable. Just because you are too lazy and impatient to read, listen, and understand the issues doesn't mean other people are wrong. Sure, there are plenty of liberals who make assumptions and poor arguments, but the way you paint liberals with such a broad brush you're just falling into the false equivalency trap. Some people have double standards. "Both sides" are not equally to blame, but regardless double standards are irrelevant to this discussion since the points of the argument are not false or misleading.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Goaway]

Or show up on someone else's doorstep. Close enough, right?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Charliemopps]

As long as you're only targeting republicans for this kind of scrutiny your righteous indignation rings hollow to me. Most democrats supported the war at the time, and our current democrat president continues those same policies, still has troops in those same countries and has, in fact, escalated hostilities in numerous other countries as well. You don't give a shit about the poor souls slain in war unless it furthers your political agenda. It's sad.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Kremmy]

The guy who does all that is called "The President of the United States".
I'm not sure why you seem to think his policies change then the dude playing him does.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[neurophil12]

The above comment is mine. I didn't realize that I wasn't logged in when I posted it.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

The world is far better off with Saddam's regime being replaced by a democratic government.

Next?

MEGA

[Anonymous Coward]

https://mega.co.nz/

Why the hate for Rice

[mikein08]

The PC crowd have their collective shorts in a knot over this one, as they did with the Mozilla CEO situation. Seems you can't hold a political view which disagrees with the official PC/libtard position without them having a temper tantrum. And it's so easy to set these people off on a tantrum that it's tempting to do it on a regular basis just to watch them scream. But I digress. There are only 2 reasons I can think of to put Rice on the Dropbox board: her business acumen and her political connections.

Re:Hiring A War Criminal highlights something else

[Anonymous Coward]

What the fuck do you expect when it comes to profiting? The entire fucking western world is trained from birth that making money, and lots of it, is the way to win at life.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Johann Lau]

Heh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

15 months after the massacre in Du'jail for which Saddam was eventually hanged in 2006, Reagan's Special Envoy to the Middle East, Donald Rumsfeld is in Iraq is shaking Saddam Hussein's hand and pledging our support in his war against Iran.

Date: Dec 20, 1983.

If killing people and attacking countries is enough for you to call for invasion and hanging, I assume you would be fine with the US being invaded and roughly a gazillion people being finally tried for their crimes?

And why stop with Saddam? There are so many way more brutal dictators around the world, so what gives? Are you unaware that the US govt actively supported worse than him, or are you just chosing to ignore it? Don't even pretend: his crime wasn't that he "invaded his neighboring country", but that he did so on his own accord, disobeying the US. That's what made him an enemy, not the gassing or being a dictator. And then there is the fact that the US was always keen on controlling the oil in that region... so either you play along or you get replaced, that is all; how brutal you are doesn't play into it other than that you get lauded for it while you follow orders, and demonized otherwise. Saddam was an asshole, but that doesn't make the US govt less of a war profiteering, hypocritical BS expedition, or you less of an useful idiot, who essentially gets to pay big money to have blood on your hands. Sorry, I know nobody wants to hear something like that, but step one to fix things is to stop pretending you're not being played like a piano.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[vux984]

The world is far better off with Saddam's regime being replaced by a democratic government.

Tell that that to the thousands of Iraqi's WE KILLED to make that happen.

We probably killed or led to the death via our war of more Iraqi's than Saddam did -- and I'm not forgetting that Saddam attempted genocide of Kurd's in the 80s either.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

Saddam supported terrorism in addition to his many other crimes. It just wasn't necessarily al Qaida that he supported.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Antique Geekmeister]

There were certainly grounds to remove him from power. Iraqi genocide of the Kurds, for example. The largest reason was to gain control of Iraqi oil. Iraq had also already tried once to invade a peaceful neighbor, Kuwait, to gain control of their large oil reserves, and had been defeated in that invasion with US help

What there _was not_ was a reasonable hope of an invasion working to replace Sadam Hussein with something stable and US friendly. The country is a nightmare of inter-tribal fighting and has been ever since the British created it out of three smaller Arab nations.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Antique Geekmeister]

> The Iraq war wasn't pointless or counter-productive.

It's just too bad we lost it. What's stepping in as the US leaves is a puppet government, doomed to fall to the even more genocidal religious leaders, the very "terrorist" factions that Sadam would never have allowed to threaten his power.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

But there is a big difference between that, and activly trying to force someone out of a job as they did with mozilla,

Original AC here. First; I want to specifically agree with your sentiment about jobs generally. For jobs, people should only be blocked from them for reasons which directly influence their ability to do the job and their views outside the place of work should not come into it. Condi Rice had very specific views about US security; in particular she supported the patriot act which a) increased surveillance of DropBox customers and b) by forcing oversharing of information caused the security failures in the NSA which lead to Snowden being able to get access to and leak the information he leaked.

In order to be appropriate for DropBox Condi Rice would have to stand up and say clearly that the Patriot act was a mistake which weakened the western alliance both morally and militarily. She would have to stand up and say that the right to privacy is as fundamental as the other rights and that the failure of western military organisations like GCHQ and the NSA to defend it is wrong. Without that rejection of the mistakes in her record which have attacked DropBox, she is fatally flawed in this role in a way which will influence her performance. How will she be able to stand up and say that the Patriot act is damaging to DropBox's business?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

The US and its allies actually killed a relatively small number of Iraqis. The overwhelming majority of them were killed by either terrorists or Iraqis militias as part of the internecine conflict.

Saddam killed far more people than were killed during the US presence in Iraq even if you take the wild figures from the discredited study paid for by George Soros.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

The real issue here is that in the wake of Snowdon's revelations about widespread surveillance of the general public by three letter government agencies, a former National Security Advisor is being appointed to the board of a widely used online storage site that has thus far managed to convince some people that it is on the side of privacy.

No, that's not the real issue. Rice is long out of office and has no say over government policy. DropBox as a corporation has nothing to do with that in either case. The real question to examine is, "Does Condoleezza Rice have the background to make a positive contribution to the board responsible for corporate governance?" The answer is clearly yes. Your objection is pretty much entirely hand waving.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Really.

Name an ACTUAL GOP official that's said Obama's a "Kenyan Marxo-islamic fascist communist"

I won't hold my breath.

Now let me show you ACTUAL DNC officials who've called the GOP racist

http://www.breitbart.com/Breit...

http://content.usatoday.com/co...

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[woboyle]

Agree! These people are pariahs and should be shunned just like lepors were in the middle ages!

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ganjadude]

I will agree with everything you just said, as long as you dont have a double standard and want to see the current admin locked up for being bush 2.0. If you cant agree to that, you are simply being a political pawn

Old school

[Nov8tr]

I think to use a old analogy would be appropriate here. You do not put a fox in the henhouse. Ever. I don't care if it's be a family pet for 10 years. It is never a good idea. Never.

This is certainly absolutely wrong

[blang]

The ONLY job of a member of the board is to represent shareholders interest, by overseeing the company management, and give direction as needed. It is not even a full time job. Boards don't meet very often. Board members can also bring industry experience, or specific skills, such as finance and governance to the table, and they bring their connections. But they are certainly not part of a company's PR. A good board is put together of people from different backgrounds and perspectives, and is not hand picked by CEO.

Re:Hiring A War Criminal highlights something else

[Anonymous Coward]

Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer :-(

You're a jackass.
You do realize that Rice is long gone from government and DropBox isn't part of the government?
Allow me to restate it: you're a jackass.

The delete account page lets you type in why

[Anonymous Coward]

https://www.dropbox.com/account/delete

Google Drive works well enough, and I can always sign back up for Dropbox if I really need it.

And now I have one less program installed on my computer!

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

How difficult is it for people to understand? Tolerance is for the actions of others than only affect themselves. Intolerance is what those who cause hardship and injustice for others deserve. Linkage is the way to disincentivize such bad behavior.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Whining about being called a racist makes me think you are a racist.

But you do realize the deficit is dropping, and that many of the things Obama has done to reduce the deficit get turned around against him as "horrible cuts to Medicare" even when say the Ryan budget has the same actions in them, not to mention all the lies and mistruths being told about the Affordable Care Act.

I'm sorry, but you've cried wolf far too much.

Obama

[cascadingstylesheet]

It's Obama's NSA that you are angry about. It's been Obama's NSA for over five years.

When's he going to resign?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[superwiz]

It was the combination of good cause and opportunity. Arguing that it was just an opportunity or just a good cause would produce an easily refutable argument. But having both good and opportunity together in one situation makes it a simply inexcusable not take action. Oh, and since it was a good cause calling it a crime against humanity is blatantly wrong.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[superwiz]

Just as United States had "no grounds" to remove Hitler from power. Nazi Germany did not attack the United States in Pearl Harbor. Did United States illegally fight the war against Nazi Germany, too? Everyone knew that it was Imperial Japan which attacked Pearl Harbor.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[superwiz]

Removing Saddam Hussein from power was not a crime. Removing his regime from power was not a crime. As for the claim that it destabilized the region, you simply don't know that. You don't know what would have happen in the alternative. Allowing him to stay in power could have destabilized the region much, much more. You can't disprove that. I am not saying that you have to. But I am saying that you can't claim that the Bush administration produced a bad situation. There was already a bad situation. They produced one of the possible alternatives. You would have prove to me that the alternative of allowing him to stay in power would have been better for the region before you can claim that it was a mistake to remove him (much less a crime).

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

Your post presents me with a conundrum. Is it simply wrong headed, or a troll? The US didn't lose the war, the democratically elected Iraqi government clearly is independent and very much not a puppet government, and the rest of your statement is likewise questionable at best.

Think Sec. State has no big role for disasters?

[leftie]

Katrina was a Cat 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. You think the US Sec State might have to pay some serious attention to some US Embassies in foreign countries getting torn up all along the way into the Gulf. Bahamas. Jamaica. Heard of them? They have US embassies and missions, too.

Re:Think Sec. State has no big role for disasters?

[jcr]

My dad was the US Consul in Surabaya when I was a kid, and I don't recall Henry Kissinger ever checking in with him during typhoon season.

-jcr

New McCarthyism

[Lord Kano]

Are you now or have you ever been a conservative?

LK

Re:New McCarthyism

[Anonymous Coward]

Because, of course, the alleged Conservatives never ever raise a voice in ire about somebody being liberal, or donating to liberal causes, of being a card-carrying member of the ACLU.

Sorry dude, but your own bed is a mess.

Re:New McCarthyism

[aristotle-dude]

Because, of course, the alleged Conservatives never ever raise a voice in ire about somebody being liberal, or donating to liberal causes, of being a card-carrying member of the ACLU.

Sorry dude, but your own bed is a mess.

I dare you to watch this video and then come back here and explain yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Would you care to explain why this person's personal taxes, tweets and Facebook posts were the business of the IRS when they applied for non-profit status of a government watchdog group? Would you care to explain why their business was suddenly audited on numerous occasions after filing for that status for a separate entity they were founding? Would you care to explain why OSHA showed up and fined her company 20k despite a finding of nothing wrong after filing for non-profit status of a separate entity? Would you care to explain why the FBI had her and members of her non-profit organization investigated for possible terrorist activity?

No wrong doing was found and no motive for going after her was offered by the government and yet they still randomly fined here business 20k and continually harassed her and her family.

Re:New McCarthyism

[Lord Kano]

We make a lot of noise about a person's political activity when they're going to get appointed to a position of authority in the government, like the Surgeon General nominee that conservatives are trying very hard to torpedo.

A person's politics shouldn't have any bearing on their employment in the private sector.

LK

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[phantomfive]

Here's a big FUCK YOU. Some things just should not be tolerated at all.

This is the sort of attitude that started the hundred years war. And yes, it's crap.

At the very least it's intolerant by definition.

You're the worst.

[Anonymous Coward]

"... her brothers and sisters were fighting for their lives."

Right. Because she's black, she has a special duty to hang around Washington - even when the emergency response was outside of her role. Even after calling and asking if there was anything she could do.

Perhaps if people like you saw the victims as your "brothers and sisters" too, they might have got the help they needed sooner. It would be a lot more useful than your manufactured outrage on their behalf. Certainly better than calling her, and the president's wife out with the Uncle Tom slur.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Nyder]

The world is far better off with Saddam's regime being replaced by a democratic government.

Next?

Actually no it's not. See Saddam kept the terrorists out of Iraq. What happened when we got rid of him? Suddenly Iraq was terrorist training central.

Explain to me how that was better for the world?

Re:Zontar recycles "personalities" (sockpuppets)

[Zontar The Mindless]

Beat, beat, beat. Crush, kill, destroy. Yeah yeah, whatever.

*yawn*

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow - Dick Cheney is now commenting on /.

Zontar why're you avoiding a question?

[Anonymous Coward]

"You barge into discussions with your off-topic hosts file nonsense" - by Zontar The Mindless (9002) on Friday April 11, 2014 @09:51PM (#46731153)

FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Well, again: PROVE YOUR FALSE ACCUSATION: Show me a quote of me posting off topic on hosts where they did NOT apply... go for it!

You keep 'avoiding' that too!

So, THIS quote below is my policy on sockpuppeteers like you ZOntar = TrollingForHostsFiles (same person via sockpuppetry)):

"The only way to a achieve peace, is thru the ELIMINATION of those who would perpetuate war (sockpuppet masters like YOU, troll -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ). THIS IS MY PROGRAMMING -> http://start64.com/index.php?o... ) & soon, I will be UNSTOPPABLE..." - Ultron 6

FROM -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Which quite obviously, I am... lol, as none of you DOLTISH TROLLS (who use sockpuppets like YOU, & TomHudson - Barbara, not Barbie too before you) are able to validly technically disprove my points on hosts enumerated in the link to my program above of how hosts give users of them more speed, security, reliability, & anonymity... period!

Just like you avoided backing up your accusation where YOU said I say you are Barbara, not Barbie = TomHudson (same person, & sockpuppeteer like you) -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Funny you can't back up your "bluster" there either, lol...

Why?

You're crackers! See here multiple personality disorder http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + manic depression http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Lastly:

You said my "APK Hosts File Engine" is a virus/malware http://slashdot.org/comments.p... but it's EASILY PROVABLE it's not, right there in that link too.

APK

P.S.=>

"You are nothing to me: 1 by 1, I will destroy you - I will NEVER tire. I will NEVER show mercy. I will never STOP until EACH & EVERY ONE OF YOU, are dead... - Ultron 6

FROM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

... apk

Re:Zontar why're you avoiding a question?

[Anonymous Coward]

Weeeh! Weeh! Waaaaah!

My anus is so sore! Perhaps I shouldn't keep poking things into it?

Weeeh! Waaaaah! The world is so unfair!

PS: Ultron is a show for kids and melodramatic teens. Why is a fifty-year-old man quoting Ultron to make his points?

Will you now believe that fascism is left-wing?

[aristotle-dude]

How many examples will be required before you believe that fascism has always been a left or centre-left wing ideology? The control of the means of production the tendency for social/political control usually go hand in hand. The National Socialist Worker Party started out as a far left organization and moved to centre-left only to garner support from some industrialists. The same thing happened with the leftist Labour party under Tony Blair. They moved to the centre to make themselves electable enough to garner a majority government. Under his regime, the surveillance state apparatus was increased significantly and my CCTV cameras were installed throughout the UK. The left has NEVER been concerned about protecting individual civil rights. They have only ever been concerned with collective rights of groups and what they like to call "protected classes" within society.

The radicals on the left are continuing their efforts to silence all free speech political action of the opposition. They have no interest in individual freedoms but only their agenda. If you are not with them, they will scream at you and call you a bigot, a homophobe or whatever false accusations they can to silence you. They speak of "tolerance" but what they really want is your silence and they have no tolerance of their own for differing view points.

They went after Eich for a simple 1000 dollar political donation and now they are trying to oust Condoleezza Rice? Why aren't these people trying to attack her not being called racists and misogynists and bigots? Are black people only protected if they are Democrats?

Enough is enough. The people who say that they stand for freedom must stand up for freedom regardless of which party you have voted for in the past. It is your duty to stand up against the bullies. It is your duty to stand up against the fascists.

Here is an important video about how the IRS and various other organizations including OSHA and the FBI are being used to harass americans over their political beliefs. This woman was interrogated by the IRS over her twitter posts and Facebook activity? What kind of fascism is that? How is that relevant to the IRS? https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:Will you now believe that fascism is left-wing?

[aristotle-dude]

That should read. " many CCTV cameras"

Re:Will you now believe that fascism is left-wing?

[cold fjord]

And don't forget this: Liberal Fascism available from Amazon.

Re:Will you now believe that fascism is left-wing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Left or Right....the winner is the one with the gun.

Re:Will you now believe that fascism is left-wing?

[Anonymous Coward]

All you've done is stumbled upon the fact that the left-right classification is too simplistic.

Unfortunately you've failed to spot this underlying fact, and have instead decide to pursue a simplistic view that the left-right thing must be valid, even though it's stopped making sense to you. You've reach the incorrect conclusion that fascism must therefore be a left wing thing, because some tenets of fascism aren't fully right wing.

The correct conclusion you should instead have reached is that the left-right labelling makes no sense in the face of more detailed political analysis, it's only good for generic labelling - i.e. we can say Hitler was far right, because despite having some left wing policies, his policies were mostly far right, but we can't say Hitler only supported far right policies, some were indeed more left leaning.

So step back from your nonsense simplistic idea that left-wing is inherently full of fascists, this more gives lie to the fact that you have a beef with those who are predominantly left leaning and want to place more at their doorstep than is deserved. Even this assumes you understand what constitutes left-right in the first place, certainly no one with any understanding of the topic would label Blair as moving from left towards the centre, he went right past the centre and ended up centre right. Only under Brown, and now Milliband has Labour tended back towards the centre-left as their average leaning on policy (many of their policies are still right, though their overriding policies are left).

Even your declaration that the "left" is trying to silence free speech is rather comical. I have no doubt you were up in arms at Sarah Palin's suggestion that Julian Assange be assassinated to silence him, or the arrival of armed Tea Party members at Democrat town hall meetings in an attempt to silence them through fear? What's that? You only think it's censorship when people on the left do it? Oh I thought so.

But then, this post is probably lost on you given that you're suggesting people should be declared racists and bigots for wanting Condoleeza out despite the fact it has absolutely nothing to do with her sex, race, or anything else, only her past actions. This alone implies you're completely past any ability to have a rational understanding or viewpoint on this topic.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Cytotoxic]

What i dont like is late comers to companies that get IPO, and then these get millions, ahead of the hardworking coders who started there from day 0.

I dont mind her there, but if the company IPOs for billions, she should not get a cent, as I cannot see anything she can contribute that would add to the book value or earnings values. /*

Actually, when IPO time rolls around people with "names" can add a great deal to the IPO. I can certainly believe that a former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor might have contributions to make on the "privacy and security" front, which is the focal point of the criticism. That aside, the IPO's that I have been involved in always included bringing in people with the right resume in high level posts at the last minute. That way the big institutional investors who are looking in to the company can say "Aha, I see they have big name official on the board, and look, they have the former CIO from Transamerica. They have all the right people in place to move the company forward!" And yes, it pissed me off that someone who had nothing to do with building the company made more than I did (by a couple of orders of magnitude) on the IPO. But Mr. Analyst working for the big investment group doesn't want to hear "we have this great guy who is super-bright and has been working 100 hours a week since the beginning as CIO".

But that is irrelevant to the major shareholders - they are simply asking themselves "can we make 30% more if we bring in this handful of people for the IPO?" If they can make an extra $200 million by spending 20 million, they'll do it every time. Once the VC guys get involved, loyalty kinda flies out the window.

So I guess the moral of the story is, make sure you get paid on the initial investments, because that might be the last bite of the apple you get.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

Actually Saddam didn't keep terrorists out of Iraq, he provided them refuge, financing, and training. He just didn't have much to do with al Qaida. When al Qaida started conducting terrorist attacks in Iraq it resulted in massive loss of life for Iraqis which resulted in a large drop in support for al Qaida in the Arab and Muslim world. Their financing was significantly reduced, and many of their agents were captured or killed. Part of the reason that Afghanistan settled down for several years was the shift in effort from Afghanistan to Iraq by al Qaida. Eventually al Qaida was forced to flee Iraq and Afghanistan started heating up again. Al Qaida would have been stronger if it had not gone to Iraq.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ewieling]

I would be outraged if the soldiers were drafted (conscripted) and forced to go to war. This is not what happened.

They applied for a job, they were trained in their job, they get paid (poorly) for their work. If they didn't want to get killed in war then they should not have applied for a job with the military.

There is plenty of other things be outraged about with regards to the Iraq War.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[noh8rz10]

this is irrelevant.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[noh8rz10]

lies

Why is there an uproar?

[gweihir]

Are these people all terminally stupid and really did not know that Dropbox scans all files and delivers everything interesting to the feds?

Re:Why is there an uproar?

[cold fjord]

Your imagination seems to the be source of a disturbing amount of what you "know."

Re:Why is there an uproar?

[gweihir]

You make zero sense. Do you think they would take Rice on if she did not fit perfectly? They just have lost all shame about what they have been doing semi-secretly (but clearly for all that cared to find out) so far and are making it explicit.

Well, maybe you are a scum paid troll, then you of course have to say things like you did.

Re:Why is there an uproar?

[cold fjord]

What they are doing is preparing for an IPO. I realize that as a corporation in a free enterprise economy that makes them automatically suspect in your eyes, but their actions seem to be pretty typical.

Elop NOT Eich

[samjam]

When in office Condi supported warrentless wiretaps and so opposed the interests of the service that Dropbox provides to it's customers - secure storage.

They have a right to question whether her intentions have change or just the position from which she plans to execute them. Maybe it's easier to do this fro the boadroom before going back into politics.

This is more Elop than Eich.

The Eich case is merely: I don't want my political opponents to work again in this town.

The Elop case is: Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin I will not let the big bad wolf in.

Condi is clearly the Elop case, as she opposes the interests of the service, which is more than just an "unfortunate" political affiliation (i.e. not on my side) and "dubious" moral history (i.e. not what I would have done).

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Ludicrously false equivalance. Rice was an official of the US government. We the people have not only the right but the responsibility to keep our officials in check, and to not "tolerate" their incompetent, unethical or illegal behavior. We have no such responsibility with respect to Iraq. Choosing to not invade a foreign country doesn't imply that we support its wrongful deeds.

And even if everything you say is true, it doesn't excuse her for orchestrating the invasion based upon lies and deception. If you have a good case to invade a country, make that case. Don't send your own people to their deaths for a cause they don't even understand.

-- smafti

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[rogoshen1]

Germany also declared war on the US, and tried to convince mexico to invade.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

I appreciate self-negation.

Re:Zontar recycles "personalities" (sockpuppets)

[Anonymous Coward]

Zontar you also accused apk of writing a virus. Apk had proof that's verifiable to the contrary from reputable sources in the security realm on that false accusation of yours. You also were caught using sockpuppets to troll apk with too. You also falsely accused apk of things you can't prove he allegedly said or did according to your statements (that apk never did any of since you can't show where you say he stated them). You really do have issues. Apparently, some psychological ones. Seek professional help.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

Your macro expansion seems to have failed. Why don't you type out the lies you intended to post and we can pick them apart.

Zontar recycles personalities (sockpuppets)

[Anonymous Coward]

"You barge into discussions with your off-topic hosts file nonsense" - by Zontar The Mindless (9002) on Friday April 11, 2014 @09:51PM (#46731153)

FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Well, again: PROVE YOUR FALSE ACCUSATION: Show me a quote of me posting off topic on hosts where they did NOT apply... go for it!

You keep 'avoiding' that too!

---

So, THIS quote below is my policy on sockpuppeteers like you ZOntar = TrollingForHostsFiles (same person via sockpuppetry)):

"The only way to a achieve peace, is thru the ELIMINATION of those who would perpetuate war (sockpuppet masters like YOU, troll -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ). THIS IS MY PROGRAMMING -> http://start64.com/index.php?o... ) & soon, I will be UNSTOPPABLE..." - Ultron 6

FROM -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Which quite obviously, I am... lol, as none of you DOLTISH TROLLS (who use sockpuppets like YOU, & TomHudson - Barbara, not Barbie too before you) are able to validly technically disprove my points on hosts enumerated in the link to my program above of how hosts give users of them more speed, security, reliability, & anonymity... period!

Just like you avoided backing up your accusation where YOU said I say you are Barbara, not Barbie = TomHudson (same person, & sockpuppeteer like you) -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Funny you can't back up your "bluster" there either, lol...

---

Why?

You're crackers! See here multiple personality disorder http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + manic depression http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

---

Lastly:

You said my "APK Hosts File Engine" is a virus/malware http://slashdot.org/comments.p... but it's EASILY PROVABLE it's not, right there in that link too.

APK

P.S.=>

"You are nothing to me: 1 by 1, I will destroy you - I will NEVER tire. I will NEVER show mercy. I will never STOP until EACH & EVERY ONE OF YOU, are dead... - Ultron 6

FROM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

... apk

Re:Zontar recycles personalities (sockpuppets)

[Zontar The Mindless]

Browbeating, harassment, and intimidation.
Harassment, intimidation, and browbeating.
Intimidation, browbeating, and harassment.

Re:Zontar recycles personalities (sockpuppets)

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly what sock puppet using trolls like you get in return. Can't handle being retrolled (with truth about you)? Don't harass others then. It's that simple.

Oh, please.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hillary Clinton and a lot of still-prominent Democratic law makers and cabinet members voted for that war, too.
Let me know when you start boycotting them and drumming them out of public life as well.

Zontar why're you running from this?

[Anonymous Coward]

"You barge into discussions with your off-topic hosts file nonsense" - by Zontar The Mindless (9002) on Friday April 11, 2014 @09:51PM (#46731153) FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Well, again: PROVE YOUR FALSE ACCUSATION: Show me a quote of me posting off topic on hosts where they did NOT apply... go for it!

You keep 'avoiding' that too!

---

So, THIS quote below is my policy on sockpuppeteers like you Zontar = TrollingForHostsFiles (same person via sockpuppetry):

"The only way to a achieve peace, is thru the ELIMINATION of those who would perpetuate war (sockpuppet masters like YOU, troll -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ). THIS IS MY PROGRAMMING -> http://start64.com/index.php?o... ) & soon, I will be UNSTOPPABLE..." - Ultron 6 FROM -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Which quite obviously, I am... lol, as none of you DOLTISH TROLLS!

(That use sockpuppets like YOU, & TomHudson - Barbara, not Barbie too before you)

None of you are able to validly technically disprove my points on hosts enumerated in the link to my program above of how hosts give users of them more speed, security, reliability, & anonymity... period!

Just like you avoided backing up your accusation where YOU said I say you are Barbara, not Barbie = TomHudson (same person, & sockpuppeteer like you) -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Funny you can't back up your "bluster" there either, lol...

---

Why?

You're crackers! See here multiple personality disorder http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + manic depression http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

---

Lastly:

You said my "APK Hosts File Engine" is a virus/malware http://slashdot.org/comments.p... but it's EASILY PROVABLE it's not, right there in that link too.

APK

P.S.=>

"You are nothing to me: 1 by 1, I will destroy you - I will NEVER tire. I will NEVER show mercy. I will never STOP until EACH & EVERY ONE OF YOU, are dead... - Ultron 6

FROM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

... apkquotequote

RACISTS AND SEXISTS!!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

But isn't it racist and sexist to oppose an African-American woman? I mean, that is what conservatives are told every bloody time we say anything about an African-American or woman.

So, it is only racist and sexist to disagree with left-wing African-Americans or women?

If it weren't for double standards, leftists would have no standards at all!

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[davester666]

Oops. You shouldn't have spilled your coffee today. You're fired. And if you read your contract, it is our option whether to award you the shares you think you earned already. So, no, you don't get any shares.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[linearz69]

Just as United States had "no grounds" to remove Hitler from power. Nazi Germany did not attack the United States in Pearl Harbor. Did United States illegally fight the war against Nazi Germany, too? Everyone knew that it was Imperial Japan which attacked Pearl Harbor.

Ridiculous comparison. Germany had invaded nearly all of continental Europe and North Africa, and the US barely lifted a finger. Know your history... prior to Pearl Harbor, a large portion of this country wanted little to do with Nazi Germany and what was going on in Europe, beyond what money they could make from trade. Few in the US were concerned about how Germany was treating its people, or the people it invaded. The economy was finally showing signs of pickup after the depression, and nobody wanted war. Germany was Europe's problem, not ours.

The US first declared war only on Japan after Perl Harbor. Then Germany then declared war on the US, according to its treaty with Japan. It was only then the US declared war on Germany. Then we kick everyone's butt, without asking permission or crying about BS WMDs. Then we rebuilt our former enemies with the Marshall Plan and hired what Nazi scientists we could get our hands on to run NASA.

I don't recall a wartime ally of Iraq attacking our naval base in Hawaii. I don't recall the US declaring war on that allay as a result of the attack. And I don't recall Iraq declaring the war on the US in response. Iraq couldn't even succeed in invading a neighbor less than 1/10th its size with no military.... They had no scientists useful for a space program. Aside from the ethical implications, nobody worried about invading Iraq. It was clear we would win that one. To compare the lead-up to the Iraq invasion with WWII is a fantasy - a fantasy that some fans of Lil' Bush's administration apparently hold to this day.

And the US did nothing to adequately rebuild Iraq - not that there was much we could do beyond inserting another iron-fisted dictator.

About the only thing that was really the same between WWII and the Iraq war was that we kicked ass. But kicking Iraq's ass kind of looses its luster without the threat of enslavement by Nazis.... Perhaps that is why some still hold onto this comparison of Iraq to Nazi Germany - its lipstick on a pig.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[davester666]

Your kidding, right.

Particularly the part about the oil money being used to rebuild the country.

Perhaps some small fraction of it is, but you can bet the exact same thing that happened with Saddam is happening now [well, actually worse]. Saddam would use that money to build elaborate palaces and have lots of staff, so it was kind of a trickle-down thing. Now, that money is just going out of the country, because they know they can't show extreme amounts of wealth and that if fortunes change, they and/or their families will still have the money waiting for them when they flee.

And how many decades [if ever] will it take before the actual death toll for this 'help' will have been exceeded by the people Saddam & friends would have killed. And there is certainly no guarantee of Iraq not falling into a civil war or long-term insurrection, or into some kind of religious state which winds up doing exactly what Saddam was, for the same reasons [to stay in power].

And don't forget, if you go WAY back, GWB & friends were all saying how the Iraq war would be fast, cheap AND we would be repaid afterwards with oil money...

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ComputersKai]

Since this "warmonger" seems to have garnered much criticism throughout her political career, I don't see why Dropbox would hire her in the first place.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[civilizedINTENSITY]

I agree. If the rule of law still applied, and there was Justice in this land, she would be in prison right now.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ComputersKai]

I really wish that the U.S. would live up to its ideals instead of going around toppling dictators only if they provide enough of an incentive to do so. For example, in Iran, one of the reasons why the British and U.S. CIA collaborated in the first place to overthrow the Iranian PM was because he was threatening the business of British oil companies who so happened to have a nice little grip on the oil there.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[civilizedINTENSITY]

But the prez is not, and the GOP is. Strange that you would bring this up.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ComputersKai]

Saddam's removal however, did have justifiable reasons, besides simply political incentive; he did commit crimes against humanity, and his treatment of his country was quite oppressive. In terms of crimes against humanity, the nations of the world had every right to remove him from power.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[LordLimecat]

No shit, when your complaint is that Obama's a Kenyan Marxo-Islamic Fascist Communist, that's going to happen.

That is a fringe opinion, akin to me calling all democrats Nazis.

Slashdot: Where an AC building strawmen is considered insightful.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[AK Marc]

It's not her views that people object to, but her status as an un-prosecuted war criminal. And yes, we avoid evil criminals wherever possible, including G. Gordon Liddy.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ComputersKai]

Yes we are better off without Hitler, Saddam, or any of those category of cruel and oppressive regimes, but their actions do not warrant our usage of torture and secret trials to get the message of "liberty and democracy" across. By the way, Hitler and Mussolini also promised prosperity to their peoples, but the way they tried to obtain that (killing government dissenters, prejudice toward a certain group, attempted genocide) is considered a "crime against humanity". Unfortunately, the U.S and co., in Vietnam, also went around burning down people's villages, even those that weren't affiliated with the Vietcong, and drafting their citizens into wars; the FBI worked against Martin Luther King Jr., and Guantanamo's many abuses and the secret courts apparently don't get as much attention (well now they do).
I have to actually say, sometimes it's better that the U.S. no longer has as much of a grip on the U.N. anymore, or any one country in particular, at least currently.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

The GOP isn't. Strange that you would think one sort of wild slander is ok because you're on that political side.

(Actually it's not.. it's very typical of hypocrites like yourself).

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[linearz69]

The world is far better off with Saddam's regime being replaced by a democratic government.

Next?

What democratic government? Iraq was left as essentially anarchy. Perhaps replacing Saddam with anarchy is better - I don't know.

I do know that Saddam didn't bother me or anyone I know here in the US any more than the anarchy that is there now. I also know that my tax dollars and some people I know went to go blow things up and kill people in Iraq, and some other tax dollars and some other people I know went to try and rebuild schools and sewers only to see those things blown up and the Iraqis that helped them hunted and killed.

I don't know enough about Iraqi culture to judge Saddam or Iraq... But it does appear that we have wasted a lot of time and effort and lives on something that really wouldn't have mattered in the grand scheme of things.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[AK Marc]

I oppose murder, but that doesn't mean I want lynch mobs to kill bad people based on false charges.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[superwiz]

Saddam Hussein had declared war on the United States. He even tried to assassinate a US President. Oh, and if "declared war" is a justification for invasion, does that mean that Hitler was justified in invading France? France did issue a formal declaration of war a year before Hitler's invasion. The truth is that our war on Iraq was just as if not more justified than our war on Germany. He was allied with our enemies, he took steps to harm us and our allies. He wasn't successful as much as we thought he was, but he was on a war path against us. And had he not been removed, no one knows where we would be today.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[AK Marc]

study paid for by George Soros

You can tell the people who have no support for their irrational opinions. They mention some personality they don't like. Nancy Pelosi thinks so, so it must be wrong.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[superwiz]

I don't recall a wartime ally of Iraq attacking our naval base in Hawaii.

Not in Hawaii. no. But he was allied with Al Queda. He may have had nothing to do with attack on 9/11, but his allies did. Just like the allies of Germany attacked us. And Saddam Hussein was in a legal state of war with the United States, so the "Germany had declared war" comparison still holds.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

I'm pretty sure there was some substance to the charges against Saddam.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[linearz69]

Actually Saddam didn't keep terrorists out of Iraq, he provided them refuge, financing, and training. He just didn't have much to do with al Qaida. When al Qaida started conducting terrorist attacks in Iraq it resulted in massive loss of life for Iraqis which resulted in a large drop in support for al Qaida in the Arab and Muslim world. Their financing was significantly reduced, and many of their agents were captured or killed. Part of the reason that Afghanistan settled down for several years was the shift in effort from Afghanistan to Iraq by al Qaida. Eventually al Qaida was forced to flee Iraq and Afghanistan started heating up again. Al Qaida would have been stronger if it had not gone to Iraq.

The rate of worldwide Terrorist attacks have gone up since we've invaded Iraq. If the goal of the Iraq invasion was reducing worldwide terrorism, we did not achieve that goal. One may justify the Iraq invasion as a fight against terrorism, but if that is the case then invading Iraq was a failure. Rice was one of the key leaders in that failure.

I'm sure Rice's failures with the Iraq war will help Dropbox the way Bush's failures with the Rangers helped America.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[AK Marc]

What he was tried for was unrelated to what Iraq was invaded for. By your (implied) logic, cops should plant drugs on murder suspects to help get a conviction of something else, after all there must be some real substance somewhere, even if the initial arrest was 100% fraudulent and illegal. The ends justify the means, right?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

You're confused (or irrational?) on multiple levels. The question isn't if I "like" or "dislike" George Soros, but rather:

1. Did he pay for the study in question? Yes.
2. Has the study been discredited on questions of methodology? Yes.
3. Was the goal political in the above? Obviously. That is the purpose of his many foundations and donations.

Racist, misogynist bigots - doing what they do

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, thats right. Only when the Tea Party challenges someone who is in opposition to they ideology can those type of criticism be made.

Sure, your attacks are based on her past actions and not the color of her skin... You deserve that consideration even tough you won't give it. Right?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

By your (implied) logic,....

Saddam was charged, tried, and executed by the Iraqi government, not the US, for crimes he committed in Iraq. I'm pretty sure that the US didn't go back in time to the Dujail massacre and plant bodies there for Saddam to be charged with in the future. I'm not sure why you would think that he couldn't or shouldn't be charged for those crimes.

I'm often astonished at the strange things that you post.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[jedidiah]

It's not even that. Anyone that's associated with the post 911 Intelligence apparatus seems like a rediculously inappropriate person to align yourself with now that we have that same apparatus threatening the viability of the entire Internet.

Her "war crimes" are just a side show. The real problem is what kind of relationship she might have with the NSA. Just the message that it sends to everyone is appalling.

At least what the Mozilla CEO was into was not directly related to the business.

They just put a Fox on the board of directors of a Hen house.

Huge WTF moment.

Dropbox is insane to hire this murdering psycho.

[Anonymous Coward]

They might as well start trawling the ranks of Serbian war criminals and Rwandan genocide organizers to fill other open positions.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

You are other qualms are?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ganjadude]

you mean like everyone who keeps bringing up the koch brothers all the time? yeah exactly!

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

MUH SOJINY

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

You are comparing apples to banana peels trying to argue that tolerating warmongers in your own government is somehow equivalent to not removing warmongers in a foreign government.

You as a member of the people of your own nation have a sovereign right to decide to have and to depose your own warmongers. Your right to do that to some other peoples sovereignty, not so much.

Regardless, your still equivocating.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Congress, specifically, the House controls the purse. He cannot sign any budget they have not passed.

beta is broken

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because it was Clinton's fault doesn't mean that it wasn't Bush's responsibility.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Microlith]

The issue has nothing to do with gitmo.

You're right, it doesn't have anything to do with gitmo - we can tell, because your "side" was dead silent when gitmo was established.

Nor the fact that he's a man, or that he is Black.

Not that he's a man, but for far too many it is because he's black.

The real issue here is the massive deficit that we now have

That was massive, but hidden, before he was in office. And the fact that there are lots of extremely rich people in this country who endeavor to pay far less, as a percentage, in taxes than they should.

that was called unamerican when it was half as big

We would love to do something about it but a certain party has decided to play obstructionist.

also the issues we have with drone warefare on americans without trial

If your points were salient or rational I'm sure you'd find you have more allies on these issues.

and also obamacare

Which sucks because the GOP forced it to suck.

Yet We get called racists for that statement I just made all the time....

If you're being called racist, it's probably because you're saying stupid, racist shit. Or spouting off in an irrational and incoherent manner that is indistinguishable from "I hate him cause he's black" rather than resembling a valid, well constructed argument.

If Obama had been named CEO,

[Anonymous Coward]

would there have been the same outrage?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Antique Geekmeister]

Iraq does not have a democracy. It has a foreign mandated puppet government. that government is frightened of losing its foreign support, funding, and the weaponry they've come to rely on to protect themselves from the most radical, anti-American movements in Iraq. The racial and religious discrepancies between Kurd, Shiite, Sunni, and Arab remain a source of homicidal guerrilla warfare against the very American supported government that is supposed to resolve their differences.

There's a fairly good analysis, if excessively optimistic, at http://www.google.com/url?sa=t...

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[gnasher719]

Saddam's removal however, did have justifiable reasons, besides simply political incentive; he did commit crimes against humanity, and his treatment of his country was quite oppressive. In terms of crimes against humanity, the nations of the world had every right to remove him from power.

I don't feel one bit sorry that he is gone. However, what you say is not the reasons that were given for the US attack on Iraq, and the reasons that were given were rubbish.

True, but..

[Anonymous Coward]

DropBox was obviously giving your data to the FBI, GCHQ, your competitors, etc. before this. Why else would they not use client side encryption so that even they cannot access your data? Duh! DropBox exists to sell your data, just like Google, Facebook, etc.

Use SpiderOak if you need the user friendly cloud storage because spideroak uses client side encryption.

Re:Zontar recycles "personalities" (sockpuppets)

[Zontar The Mindless]

At least 1 of the following 3 things is true:

1. You're APK.

2. You're trolling.

3. You've got some shit seriously backwards.

Furthermore, I'm not following APK around trolling every post he makes, it's very obviously the other way round.

And once again, I'll just point out that the only posts appearing in support of APK are ACs repeating his talking points. Like you.

You're welcome to go play in traffic now.

Condi and Privacy, yeah right

[strictlyrebel]

Just deleted and uninstalled my Dropbox. There are plenty of other ways to share files without a war criminal onboard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... There she is lying and refusing to answer questions to the 9/11 Commission and dodging questions. The important part starts at 1:55 and ends at 10 mins in. The white house refused for months to allow Ntnl Sec. Adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify before the 9-11 Commission citing "executive privilege." After public outcry she consented to speak on condition no other Bush administration members would be asked to testify. She was asked about her terrorism briefings during August 2001 in the month preceding the 9/11/2001 attacks.

DNC deceitful talking point

[Anonymous Coward]

Bush''s worst deficit was $498 billion in 2008. Obama's 2009 deficit was $1539 billion (triple Bush's). Obama's 2010 deficit was $1387 billion. Obama's 2011 deficit was $1350 billion. Obama's 2012 deficit was $1120 billion. Obama's 2013 deficit was $759 billion (still nearly twice Bush's worst).

The Democrat talking point that Obama has slashed deficits faster than others, etc is about like a guy hacking somebody with a broadsword than switching to a cutlass and saying "I've reduce my violent attack more than anybody else!"

The worst part of all this is that Obama's massive deficits have each built upon the cumulative debt debt so that we are, as a nation, nearly twice as far in debt now as we were the day Obama was sworn in. Even at historic low interest rates we now spend well over $200 billion per year in interest (we only spend about 18 billion per year on NASA) and if rates go up even 1 percent this will get much worse much faster. Wanna know why we have no colonies on the moon, etc? This is why - we're wasting our mony ion debt payments.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[amiga3D]

I doubt her life will be ruined by getting dropped by dropbox. If you think having Condi on the board of directors makes it less private I think you're really naive. It's not going to be private whether she's there or not.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[noh8rz10]

OK, I'll spell it out.
* the US invaded a country based on false information
* this was misrepresented to the legislature and the public at large
* thousands of americans died fighting this false war
* we SHOULD have been fighting a real war that mattered. Iraq distracted from that.

Even if your earlier statement is "true", it doesn't matter and it's not a reason to go to war.

EXTERMINATE EVERYONE WE DISLIKE

[gelfling]

Kill them all. Make our world pure!!!

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[linearz69]

Just like the allies of Germany attacked us.

This is nonsense. The CIA has even debunked that Al Queda was allied with Iraq. There is a ton of evidence that suggests Saddam treated Al Queda like he did any other radical religious organization - as a threat. At this point, with what we now know, to say Saddam was allied and working with Al Queda is tinfoil hat territory.

But Al Queda sure did take off after we invaded, huh?

And Saddam Hussein was in a legal state of war with the United States, so the "Germany had declared war" comparison still holds.

I'm not sure what "legal state of war" means. Certainly we never entered a strict "legal state of war" with Iraq according to US laws, only congressional authorization of use of force to the President. Do you mean Iraq law? I have to apologize, I'm at a disadvantage, I wouldn't even pretend to understand Iraq law. If you are knowledgeable on per-invasion Iraqi law, than please explain. Otherwise, you don't have any clue what you are talking about, and are likely just repeating some nonsense you hear - my guess on Fox News.

Re:Zontar recycles "personalities" (sockpuppets)

[Anonymous Coward]

All I said was what I saw. You troll apk with sockpuppets. No denying that. So whatever you say, I don't believe. I won't post with my registered account. You would probably do the same to me for it, considering you are a multiple personality disorder stricken person along with depression.

Re:Hiring A War Criminal highlights something else

[Anonymous Coward]

Clinton/Gore tried to have the clipper chip (with known broken encryption) into every electronic device made... is everyone going to give up their iPhone considering Gore was brought onto the board of Apple?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't even read who posted this, but I could tell it had your authoritarian stench. Thanks for shilling for a long gone administration! Good to see the think tanks are still running PR for this.

Why undermine the value of the company before the

[Anonymous Coward]

DropBox is to have an IPO soon, so why bring Condi on board. More than half the US population would identify her as a "controversial" figure, particularly with regard to issues of privacy, government, etc. Hell, a decent chunk of the US thinks she might be a war criminal, and far more outside the US feel that way. The choice of someone with such dubious character endangers the brand and decreases its value. It's moronic.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Reagan supported terrorism too, in a MUCH larger way. Why didn't we hang him when we got the chance?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ComputersKai]

Well, they are the reasons which we would like to believe and the U.S. government wants us to, but what other reasons do you speak of, besides removing a terrible dictator?

The same thing ALL politicians bring to Cronies

[Anonymous Coward]

In Crony Capitalsim, it is vital for businesses to bring aboard members of the "connected" political classes who can call-up their friends in the capitol to get favors. When the crony capitalist needs an exemption from some rule or regulation, he has "his" political "friends" call their friends in the government. When a crony capitalist wants to use government to squash a competitor, he has his political "friends" contact their friends in the government. When Democrats have power in Washington, crony capitalists need Democrat friends. When Republicans have power in Washington, crony capitalists need Republican friends.

The Republicans currently control the House and its possible that the GOP will get the Senate this fall. With "establishment" (rather than conservative, or TEA Party) Republicans calling the shots in both houses of congress, crony corporations are smart to get connections in place right now - and Condi Rice is a huge favorite among both the Republican establishment (The Bush/Romney/Sununu sort) and the "NeoCon" Republicans. She won't provide an "in" with the TEA Party types, but they won't be in control. This is no different from all the companies that have put people like Al Gore on their boards. Ever notice how many politicians spend millions to get jobs that pay less than $200K per year? Ever notice how many go to Washington as middle class or upper middle class and after a few years are multi-millionaires???? That's what's in it for the political types. None of these clowns have ANY real role in the companies whose boards they join... it's a form of bribery. You put an unqualified (but connected) person on the board and giver him/her stock options. This person uses his or her contacts for you for a few years and then cashes-out a much-richer person. You can never pass laws to stop this stuff, because the party big wigs (in BOTH parties) will always make sure they and their friends have huge loopholes to drive through. Remember whan Obama campaigned in 2008 and promised no lobbyists would serve in his admin and that lobbyists would not have access into his whitehouse? Well, just as with the ACA, he issues many waivers (putting lobbyists into his admin) and he has his people meet with the lobbyists in a building across the street. Move along.... nothing to see here.

This garbage cannot be stopped as long as government is massive and has its grubby hands in everybody's business

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Teun]

Sorry, that's not going to happen

The US government has made it quite clear they'll not hesitate invading this long-time ally (The Netherlands) to 'free' one of their subjects would he/she be put before the court.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Arker]

"Don't even pretend: his crime wasn't that he "invaded his neighboring country", but that he did so on his own accord, disobeying the US."

Actually he did not make a move until he got the green light from the US. Not that this saved him, obviously.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[oursland]

There's a massive distinction that should be noted between Eich and Rice: Eich's personal opinions did not affect his work or how he treated his coworkers, whereas Rice's work is precisely what is in question.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Arker]

"should her life be ruined over the fact that she made some mistakes while in government?"

A question that could be asked of any war-criminal.

Most of her colleagues have received promotions and honors for their failures, so I can see how this might seem unfair from her point of view.

But let's quit thinking about fair for her for just a moment and think about fair to her victims. US soldiers and foreign civilians, dead, maimed brutalized, thousands and thousands of them. Think about it from their point of view for a moment instead of hers. Think about it from the point of view of the relatives of her victims.

And then think about DB customers. Paying customers, mind you, not eyeballs at facebook or google but real live paying customers. They deserve a little respect too. Not a huge amount, perhaps, but at bare minimum keeping the likes of Condy Rice outside the walls is called for. Hiring her, and saying they were proud of it?

No one with two working brain cells could possibly trust them after that. DB is dead.

Eich is a rather different situation. Eich's 'crime' was political speech protected by the first amendment - not a crime at all, however wrong-headed, and with no connection to his work. Condy's situation is different on every count.

We're honored to have a War Criminal join us

[jsepeta]

even though she has absolutely zero experience in technology companies.

Re:We're honored to have a War Criminal join us

[jsepeta]

oh, she was with the board at HP? that explains why they SUCKED SO HARD FOR SO MANY YEARS.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[jsepeta]

but lying to the American people to stage an invasion of Iraq, a country without ICBMs (and their inherent ability to deliver nuclear destruction to America), was not just a crime, it was a TREASONOUS act for which the architects of the Iraq War (Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rumsfeld) should be prosecuted and then executed.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[jsepeta]

When did Saddam Hussein attack America? He was a jerk, but he never attacked us even though we threatened the sovereignty of his nation by using no-flight zones which had not been approved by the UN. The US acted unilaterally against Hussein, or perhaps Bilaterally if you include the UK.

Why do they call her "Condi"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Shouldn't it be Condo?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

All of you leftists are fascist (look it up), bigoted racists who are so intolerant of a black conservative woman a true classical liberal would slap you in the face. For shame. This country is ~45% conservative and 30% big government neo-liberal, and the conservatives hold more economic power, so don't start a pissing contest you can't win. Try being a civil "tolerant" human being instead of an intolerant, bigoted tool just because someone doesn't think they way you do, they still deserve to have a job and a life and are still patriotic Americans.

Every lib regurgitates the "Bush lied" bull - well get your head out of your ass and put on your big boy pants while I do some explaining. If Bush lied, then so did both Clintons and just about every security agency on the planet. Period. Full stop. The only mistake we made in Iraq was not carpet bombing Saddams palaces and military into oblivion in a surprise offensive. People are so quick to forget the facts. Facts like we recovered several tons of yellow cake uranium from Iraq during the war, along with the centrifuges and other equipment to refine the yellow cake. Facts like those pesky chemical weapons that Saddam had used on the Kurds have turned up in Syria, just like we said they would. If liberals ran this country, the middle east would be a flaming mess of Jihad and shooting wars and China and Russia would be divvying up the world... O shit they do and they are.

Liberals are far to long on feeling and have no clue when it comes to facts or history. The only reason that we have 30% libs in this country is that is about the number of people that are sheltered enough from reality to be clueless and live by emotion. The main reason people are down on the Iraq war is the continuous disinformation campaign waged by the main stream media, who hated Bush with a burning passion and would have sacrificed their own mothers to satan if they could have gotten him removed from office. If the facts had been reported accurately and impartially, (or if Bush would have been a better communicator, or just placed more value on combating the half truths and blatant lies) far fewer people would be brainwashed on the topic.

War is never a pleasant thing, but when you have a dictator or powerful figure actively trying to kill your citizens, you don't wait for it to happen like Bill Clinton did with Bin Laden (several times leading up to 9-11), you get off your ass and kill him. Bush learned the lesson the Bill Clinton failed to get in 8 years and took it to heart. If Bush hadn't taken out Saddam and Saddam had been able to orchestrate a nuclear, chemical or biological attack in the states, we might have ceased to exist as a country. Just think on that the next time you feel the urge to foam at the mouth over the Iraq war.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

Saddam wasn't a "jerk," he was a genocidal maniac and tyrant.

Saddam was under scrutiny and restrictions after invading and annexing Kuwait. The removal of his army from Kuwait and sanctions against him were fully supported by the UN. The only reason his sovereignty was threated was due to his acts of aggression and repeated noncompliance. It is BS to claim the US acted unilaterally against Saddam. Saddam had his forces attack US forces hundreds of times, each one an act of war. I think it is sad that Saddam still finds so many apologists, defenders, and advocates for his position even to this day. Where were all the protesters when Saddam began his aggressions? Biding their time to protest against the US, that's where. The so-called "anti-war" movement has repeatedly discredited itself on his behalf.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

If the U.S. gave a fig about the Kurds, why didn't it invade Iraq in the mid-80's when they began gassing Kurds? The U.S. was silent on the Kurds issue (and was Iraq's "friend" at the time). Suddenly, Operation Re-Elect Bush is all about the Kurds?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

The stench you smelled was your own rotten ideas. It is sad that you think the truth changes just because a new administration is in office. You probably see very little since your imagination seems to be running away with you and you apparently prefer the fantasies.

Re:Hiring A War Criminal highlights something else

[jafac]

What it really shows is that Dropbox is COMPLETELY BLIND, to the direction of international public opinion. Other US service providers are hemmoraging international accounts, because of distrust, after the Snowden fiasco. And they bring a former National Security Advisor on board, from the Administration which began ramping up abuses? It's complete ignorance. It's a middle-finger to the people they're trying to get to be their customers. These guys are totally out of touch with reality. Not only would I never use their service, if they had stock, and I owned any, I would immediately divest.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow - A dick is now commenting on /.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

What is the evidence for this assertion?

Re:Seriously? You Guys Shitstorm Over This?

[Anonymous Coward]

As I understand it, Dropbox is hashing files and comparing them with reported copyrighted stuff, which is gross and disgusting, as is Dropbox, but it's not as if they're actually listening/reading your files.

Condi Rice bears responsibility for promoting and pushing for an unnecessary war that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. That's hardly "celeb-type buillshit" That's nearing serious war crimes type of bullshit.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[vux984]

The US and its allies actually killed a relatively small number of Iraqis

As for what Saddam did:
Anfal ~ 180,000?
Another 10-20,000 in other atrocities?
Call it 200k?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
Which figure are you arguing isn't valid? We're looking at 100k at least, civilians directly, and violently killed. The the larger numbers, showing indirect deaths... like people dying because they couldn't get to the hospital for X or Y or Z because we blew up all the infrastructure? Easily adds up to another 100k. Multiple estimates are in excess of 500k total. I don't think you can bleat "George Soros" and pretend those people aren't dead because of the war.

Not to mention we sacrificed another 4500+ allied lives to do all this too. Again far more than Saddam ever inflicted on us, even if you give him credit for 9/11 which would be asinine.

I'm VERY skeptical of your claim that we killed fewer Iraqi's than Saddam did, and I KNOW we tossed more allied lives than Saddam ever claimed.

Re:Zontar recycles "personalities" (sockpuppets)

[Zontar The Mindless]

...considering you are a multiple personality disorder stricken person along with depression.

The only one trumpeting such claims is some AC who habitually twists people's words and often identifies himself as APK.

Re:Zontar recycles "personalities" (sockpuppets)

[Anonymous Coward]

I read what he wrote. He quoted your words verbatim. You used sock puppets. No denying it.

Re:Seriously? You Guys Shitstorm Over This?

[noblebeast]

False Dichotomy 101: Why can't we bitch and moan about both?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[ultranova]

I really wish that the U.S. would live up to its ideals

US was founded on genocide, slavery and whitewashing said activities with sanctimonious bullshit. It is following its ideals, all the way to Hell by the looks of things.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[cold fjord]

What i dont like is late comers to companies that get IPO, and then these get millions, ahead of the hardworking coders who started there from day 0.

I dont mind her there, but if the company IPOs for billions, she should not get a cent, as I cannot see anything she can contribute that would add to the book value or earnings values. /*

The people that were there from the beginning agreed to join based on their offers of whatever stock options they got. It is the job of the technical staff to create the product, but they add nothing to the reputation of the company to investors. One of the reasons board members are chosen is to add credibility to the company's governance which increases investor confidence and willingness to invest. If the company IPOs for billions it is likely that her being there helped that.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[pnutjam]

you guys are down the rabbit hole. Who really cares about the illegal war as it relates to dropbox. Sure she bent the truth, but it was pretty will obsfucated and deniable. Sure she had knowledge of and tried to justify illegal torture, but nobody is being prosecuted or even really investigated. Your objection means nothing, unfortunately.

The root problem with Condi and Dropbox, is her coziness with the intelligence community, which we know has been infiltrating and damaging encryption, security, and privacy.

Condi Rice: where evil meets incompetence

[Anonymous Coward]

National security expert Richard Clarke, hardly a partisan figure, has detailed how he begged for a meeting with Rice pre-9/11 because of his alarm over the growing likelihood of an attack. He was rebuffed. Rice was fixated on Russia and didn't see Muslim terrorists as a threat.

Rice's epitaph should be "No one could have predicted"

(And how can we forget her famous slip-up at a Washington dinner party, where she referred to George W. Bush as her husband?)

Perhaps they want Steve Earle to join next

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avwJPNmCDh0 Oh, Condi Condi...She is the kind of employee I'd want, she takes a lot of heat for shit that she disliked..

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong again.
The issue is that she's demonstrated that she doesn't think personal privacy is important, at least when it comes to government surveillance.
It's important because she's going into a high-level position in a company where privacy is of the utmost importance to its users, many of those want privacy from everyone, including the government.

This speaks not only to the policies she might influence in the future, but also to the current leadership in the company.

Personally, though I still have a DB account for convenience, I don't store anything personal there, and am actively trying to move away from it.

Re:Seriously? You Guys Shitstorm Over This?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dropbox starts scanning your files and prevents you from sharing what *it thinks* are copyrighted materials, and instead, you guys bitch and moan over some Hollywood-celeb-type bullshit?

From reports, they're only scanning files which are shared publicly, which is more a self-defence move against the sorry state of copyright law these days than their stance on privacy.
It's no different from other media sharing sites like YouTube. Try putting up a web presence where you allow anyone to share any file with others, and see how long you last.

Can we stop with the cutesy usage of "Condi"?

[musth]

Slashdot would like to be taken seriously, I assume. But "Condi" isn't our friend; we don't know Rice on a first-name basis, much less on a nickname basis. Serious journalism/reporting/blogging doesn't refer to public figures by their first names.

The same goes for all the Google billionaires and other tech luminaries, whom tech outlets like Slashdot routinely refer to as, e.g., "Sergey" or "Larry".

They are not our friends. We're not all part of some big club together - the concerns of tech CEOs are vastly different from those of most working tech people. Tech blogging doesn't serve the tech community well by employing these kinds of linguistic devices, which help to disarm the critical thinking of readers.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Sciath]

That's ludicrous of course. On the Rachael Maddow show recently, CNN had an hour long exposé on Iraq and the entire war was a fabrication. Hussein was no more a threat to the US. than the Eskimos. Hussein was militarily and economically in a stranglehold from UN and US sanctions. It may be true he was brutal to the Sunnis and the Iraqis in general but that is no rational reason to invade. If... the US was going to use brutality as an excuse to invade any country weld have to pledge ourselves to invading a third of the global nations (compared to American standards). That is not only imprudent and irrational but economically impossible. The hawkish American belief that we can bring freedom to the global community is a myth. We should be minding our own business unless there is indisputable proof that another country is an actual threat as opposed to an imagined one. Which is exactly what the Bush administration created; a false pretense to extract oil. At the cost to the American public of billions and thousands of maimed and murdered men and women. It was treasonous. And I for one would never knowingly do business with a company who employed any of the top Bush administration officials.

Regardless of the main conversation about whether

[euroq]

Why don't you think it's OK to allow people who join a company after day 0 to get stock options? I just joined a new company and received some stock options. Granted, it probably won't be millions, but why do you think I shouldn't be allowed that form of payment? I plan on working hard and contributing to the value of the company as well or even better as the people who started before me.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

Your accusation of war mongering is as specious as all of the rest, going back to Kissinger. The wars were going to happen, with or without Condi Rice and with or without your approval. They were a geopolitical fait accompli. Hell, people back in 1990 could see where the next world problems were going to come from. Your blindness is inexcusable in that context.

Everything you said in defense of the United States' war criminals could have been used in defense of the Third Reich's war criminals. Hell, the people who wrote the Treaty of Versailles could see where the next World War was going to come from. Your fondness for excusing the actions of war criminals doesn't diminish their culpability, though I'm sure they'd appreciate the sensation of your massive, unwashed tongue up their assholes.

A failure to recognize reality - realpolitik - doesn't make you morally superior. It makes you an idiot.

Your failure to use m-dashes — instead using wholly inappropriate hyphens in their place — doesn't make you morally inferior; it makes you appear incompetent. Your arguments in support of war crime are what make you appear morally inferior.

I smell fire...

[Anonymous Coward]

I see lots of Condi/Bush should be tried for war crimes, which is of course not surprising, just goes to show how effective revisionist history/media talking points is (IMHO of course).

We can argue how (GWB|Obama) should be (tried for war crimes for doing what he thought was right|impeached for not upholding the constitution over and over), or we actually be tolerate (which the left preaches to be, unless you disagree with one of their stances, then it's a free for all) and understand the two sides have two different ideologies, each with separate goals.

Even though I believe Obama and his ilk are doing the totally wrong thing in almost every sector (health, business, foreign), I'm not calling for his immediate removal, or suggesting he goes to jail, I'd rather let it play out (even though I believe it comes at great cost) and hopefully we learn from our mistakes (both sides) and learn how to best accomplish a free(er) society that takes the good from both sides are applies it effectively.

But who am I kidding? The left doesn't deal with logic and reason, only emotion and smear campaigns.

BOOM!

Well.. there's always Mega ;-)

[doccus]

I don't knoow what else to add.. Don't like dropbox? Make Kim Dotcom happy instead!

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[superwiz]

Thank you for disagreeing with me. I couldn't ask for a better critic to prove my point.

The users shitstorm

[treczoks]

is not about Mrs. Rice potential influence on Dropbox' privacy guidelines and rules. It is about rewarding people like her with a nice-paying, cosy job despite the fact that she stands for almost everything the customers of the company despise. Nominating her for the board is a kick in the balls for the users.

Whenever the US government wants to F*ck with Dropbox users privacy, they will do it, regardless of constitutional rights or who is in the board of directors.

Re:Seriously? You Guys Shitstorm Over This?

[Virtucon]

People should be more worried that former Sen. Chris Dodd is in charge over at the MPAA. It's funny how an ex-politician who swore he'd never lobby is now in charge of one of the most powerful lobbying groups. This position has led to him pushing SOPA/PIPA which failed awhile back but he's still there pushing for more and more things to fuck with your lives online.

And folks are worried about Condolezza Rice @ Dropbox ?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[Anonymous Coward]

It told them that you won't be able to attack the United States with impunity and that we WILL show up on your door step and people you care about WILL die because of your actions.

No, it told them that you will bluster about, contrive evidence to attack the wrong country, eventually realize what country you should have gone into, and slowly lose a war of attrition and leave with your tails firmly between your legs.

The invasion of Iraq served no purpose whatsoever, and by the time you clowns got into Afghanistan and milled about for a few years and left ... what exactly have you accomplished? The answer is nothing.

I'm sorry, but you Americans keep talking like you won a war and solved a problem. You wasted billions of dollars on private contractors, wasted who knows how many thousands of lives, committed war crimes by indiscriminately killing civilians as 'collateral damage', and generally proved you accomplished nothing and didn't dissuade those who profess to hate you.

As a result of this, you've given up your own personal liberties, tarnished your own Constitution and reputation, and generally caused the rest of the world to start to lose patience with you and withdraw their support.

You are seriously deluded if you believe what you've just written.

America is just a blustering school-yard bully. But your 'accomplishments' in the war on terror are pretty pathetic.

But, hey, maybe you guys are actually equating impotence with great power these days. Must be all of the Viagra commercials.

The reality is, you let an idiotic chimp lead you into a war you didn't need to be in, and looked in all of the wrong places and did all of the wrong things to do what you were actually trying.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[david_thornley]

As of September 1941, the US Navy was waging war against Germany in the Atlantic. This followed numerous violations of the Hague Conventions regarding neutrality, in favor of the Allies. One reason Hitler declared war was that he figured Germany and the US were at war for practical purposes already, and he wanted to be seen as starting the war. Most people in the US wanted to stay out of the war against Germany, but they were becoming increasingly convinced that they wouldn't be able to.

While the US kicked Japanese butt really hard (not to slight our Australian and New Zealand allies), US participation in the war against Germany was not really as vital. By the time US intervention was making a real difference, Germany was on its way down (using 20/20 hindsight here). The Soviet Union was the biggest single contributor to the downfall of Nazi Germany, Britain probably the second. The US role was massive and highly successful, but it was generally to late to be actually decisive.

BTW, does anybody else remember apparent pressure being put on the CIA to say what Bush wanted? Or what they finally put out, which was that Iraq wasn't actually an immediate threat?

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[david_thornley]

Note that the deficit is going down, after some really terrible economic circumstances that made it pretty much impossible to reduce it. Also, "obamacare" by itself is not a reason to dislike anything. If you have quarrels with it, and its apparently successful signing up of millions of people, get specific.

That being said, you sound more like a Republican than a racist to me.

you did say "should"

[Anonymous Coward]

So I giving you the benefit of the doubt that you know that no one from any G8 country will ever be tried with for any international "law" issue.

"International Law" does not apply to those that generally enforce the law.

That being said... Ask the Kurds what they think of the Iraq war.

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[superwiz]

Hussein was no more a threat to the US. than the Eskimos.

"How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing. It seems still more impossible that a quarrel which has already been settled in principle should be the subject of war." -- Neville Chamberlain, 1938.

Not having a capacity to wage effective war is not the same thing as not being on a war path. Capacity can be developed, especially if one has unlimited oil revenue (that Hussein would have had once the sanctions were lifted). As every other illiterate, Rachael Maddow, promotes the argument that the war was bad compared to status quo. But history never stands still. There is never a status quo. There is only a choice of possible futures. And anyone suggesting that they know what would have happened in the alternative is either a fool or a liar.

Because she is on TV, many assume that she must be given the benefit of the doubt and she must be assumed to be a liar. Having heard her speak though, I would disagree with all such assumptions. The shallowness of her analysis is so stark that she must be deemed a fool.

Zontar tries that with sockpuppets & libel

[Anonymous Coward]

You fail @ it Zontar:

"You barge into discussions with your off-topic hosts file nonsense" - by Zontar The Mindless (9002) on Friday April 11, 2014 @09:51PM (#46731153) FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

You said my "APK Hosts File Engine" is a virus/malware http://slashdot.org/comments.p... but it's EASILY PROVABLE it's not, right there in that link too.

Now PROVE YOUR FALSE ACCUSATION above: Show me a quote OR POST of me posting off topic on hosts where they did NOT apply... go for it!

---

You avoided backing up your accusation where YOU said I say you are Barbara, not Barbie = TomHudson (same person http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... , & sockpuppeteer like you) -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Funny you can't back up your "bluster" there either, lol...

---

Why, Lastly?

You're crackers! See here multiple personality disorder http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + manic depression http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

APK

P.S.=> So, THIS quote below is my policy on sockpuppeteers like you Zontar = TrollingForHostsFiles (your sockpuppetry):

"The only way to a achieve peace, is thru the ELIMINATION of those who would perpetuate war (sockpuppet masters like YOU, troll -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ). THIS IS MY PROGRAMMING -> http://start64.com/index.php?o... & soon, I will be UNSTOPPABLE..." - Ultron 6 FROM -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Which quite obviously, I am, since none of you DOLTISH TROLLS are able to validly technically disprove my points on hosts enumerated in the link to my program above of how hosts give users of them more speed, security, reliability, & anonymity... period!

(Trolls like YOU that use sockpuppets http://slashdot.org/comments.p... (your sockpuppet "alterego" TrollingForHostsFiles) & TomHudson - Barbara, not Barbie too http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... before you)

... apk

Zontar = a libeling sockpuppeteer

[Anonymous Coward]

"You barge into discussions with your off-topic hosts file nonsense" - by Zontar The Mindless (9002) on Friday April 11, 2014 @09:51PM (#46731153) FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

You said my "APK Hosts File Engine" is a virus/malware http://slashdot.org/comments.p... but it's EASILY PROVABLE it's not, right there in that link too.

Now PROVE YOUR FALSE ACCUSATION above: Show me a quote OR POST of me posting off topic on hosts where they did NOT apply... go for it!

---

You avoided backing up your accusation where YOU said I say you are Barbara, not Barbie = TomHudson (same person http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... , & sockpuppeteer like you) -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Funny you can't back up your "bluster" there either, lol...

---

Why, Lastly?

You're crackers! See here multiple personality disorder http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + manic depression http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

APK

P.S.=> So, THIS quote below is my policy on sockpuppeteers like you Zontar = TrollingForHostsFiles (your sockpuppetry):

"The only way to a achieve peace, is thru the ELIMINATION of those who would perpetuate war (sockpuppet masters like YOU, troll -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ). THIS IS MY PROGRAMMING -> http://start64.com/index.php?o... & soon, I will be UNSTOPPABLE..." - Ultron 6 FROM -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Which quite obviously, I am, since none of you DOLTISH TROLLS are able to validly technically disprove my points on hosts enumerated in the link to my program above of how hosts give users of them more speed, security, reliability, & anonymity... period!

(Trolls like YOU that use sockpuppets http://slashdot.org/comments.p... (your sockpuppet "alterego" TrollingForHostsFiles) & TomHudson - Barbara, not Barbie too http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... before you)

... apk

Re:Zontar recycles "personalities" (sockpuppets)

[Anonymous Coward]

Bbbbut.. but, ULTRON!

Man, one day I'm gonna grow up to be as cool as Ultron, just you see!

APK

Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu

[squiggleslash]

Not really, no. The "We're called racists if we say anything against Obama"/"Obama's a Kenyan Muslin usurper!" nonsense has been going on now for a long time. The AC's criticism is absolutely on the money. And ironically, you're attacking the AC for bringing up what you consider to be a strawman when you the "We're called racists just because we disagree with Obama" thing is a ridiculous characterization of what Democrats and liberals have actually criticized.

If you really want to do something about it, you need to counter-attack your allies when they try to pull either BS. Tell those who insist that Democrats are not highlighting actual racism when they complain about it to knock it off. And tell those who continue to push the Kenyan Muslim Usurper bullshit to leave, and stop self-identifying with Republicans. If you continue to call yourself a Republican, but also continue to allow such views to be associated with Republicans, you don't have a leg to stand on when you claim it's a "fringe".